


[COMPLETE] Broken Glass

by MeltyMetroid



Series: Championship of the Ribbonissa [4]
Category: ARMS (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, filled with headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-05
Updated: 2018-11-07
Packaged: 2019-07-07 07:59:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 16
Words: 42,804
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15904155
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MeltyMetroid/pseuds/MeltyMetroid
Summary: A mysterious young woman has the ability to take the form of anyone she grabs, and now she's coming after the ARMS League fighters. But why...?





	1. Reflections I

**Author's Note:**

> This is my fourth ARMS story in this series! This one is completely standalone, so don't worry if you haven't read the previous ones. Though I'd still recommend you do, since they're pretty fun too~
> 
> The format of this fic involves switching perspective a lot, so new chapters will be put out every Wednesday and Saturday from here on out! This is also a LONG fic, so buckle in...

_ Life as a father has its fair share of trials. It’s a full-time job that requires constant attention, steady patience, and through thought. What kind of a person will your child grow to be? That’s not predetermined - it’s something you shape throughout their upbringing. Will your child be proud of you, in the end? And will you be proud of them, for what they become and the actions they take along the way? There could be no gift greater on this Earth than- _

It was at this point that Master Mummy fell asleep, the pages of his father’s guidance magazine falling flat on his belly as he lay back on the reclined armchair he sat in. Ever since he found his family back he had dedicated every spare hour he had to being the best husband and father he could possibly be.

But as a result? He got pretty darn tired when the moon was finally up. His son could be quite a handful at times, always  _ beaming _ with energy and racing around like a tiger for hours on end. How was Mummy supposed to keep up? He was over a hundreds of years old at this point and had been quite literally raised from the dead. Somehow getting a bit stiff in middle age doesn’t quite compare.

And so he lay there, in a pair of dad shorts and an old laundry-day T-shirt still stained with drips from that evening’s spaghetti dinner, resting on the recliner with his feet raised and his head tilted back in heavy snores. The rain poured outside, leaving a gentle pitter-patter past the curtains and a comfortable tone throughout the living room he resided.

He could be a pretty deep sleeper at times, but he had only  _ just _ dozed off and wasn’t quite there yet. So when a careful knocking came to his door it only took a repetition or two to make him squint open his eyes.

_ Knock knock knock. _ So casual, like a neighbour passing by to borrow some sugar. But at this time? In  _ this _ downpour? Why would anyone be so nonchalant?

Mummy hunched forward and wiped the drool from his chin with the back of his hand. Whoever it was, he was sure glad they chose to forego the doorbell. The  _ last _ thing he needed was his son waking up.

He begrudgingly got to his feet, dropping the magazine he had been reading to the floor in the process, and stomped his way over to the front door. His head was a little dizzy and his eyelids were still weighing down, hoping to return him to the slumber he had just began. But he knew he couldn’t rightfully keep a visitor out in the rain like this.

The cold air sent a slight shiver down his spine as he cracked the door open, bringing him face-to-face with the person who had come to see him - a young woman, it seemed. The dark of night made it tricky to see her properly, but the moon above did its best to help. Her skin was a smooth deep tan, not unlike Twintelle’s but perhaps a touch duller. The dark curls of her hair were damp in the night’s rain but still retained a rather poofy shape overall, rather like a cloud. And just as every cloud is said to have a silver lining, her hair had a swift streak of silver over her fringe. Hm.

“Uhhh... Can I help you?” Master Mummy groggily asked, still rather sleepy. Her mouth seemed to curve slightly into a smile. The deep blue mask adorning her face bore no unique markings or additions - standard issue, presumably. Though her thick white lashes blended eerily with the whites of her eyes, which in turn mixed all too indistinctly with the immensely pale irises and scleras she also featured, overall leaving her eyes as something of a white and empty void. Especially when the moonlight caught them.

“Master Mummy, correct?” She asked sweetly.

“...Yes.” He confirmed. Her eyes were somewhat unsettling to look into, but he did his best to ignore it. Something about her struck him as unfortunate. If he had to guess, perhaps it’d be the cloak she wore - some sort of shroud overlaying her body, almost poncho-like. It was thin and brown, and likely didn’t offer much warmth. 

“I suppose I didn’t really need to ask that, huh?” She smiled softly.

“...Can I help you?”

“I think you can, yes.”

Time seemed to slow for a moment. The woman suddenly twisted back, and from out under her cloak came an ARM. It extended out into the air behind her, shimmering in the moonlight like a diamond almost blindingly, and at the end of it her hand folded down into a fist. It spun slightly as it became equipped with a standard-issue Buff glove.

Before Master Mummy had time to think, her ARM had reached its furthest extent and began to fly in the other direction - right toward him. It slammed hard against his chest, pretty squarely striking him with a great deal of force, enough to send him flying back through his house. He landed hard against the stairway he had been standing before - the sheer weight of his collision causing the few small steps beneath him to crack and give way.

His mind jumped all over the place as he did his best to quickly process what had just happened, as the ache in his back shot through his body. The woman took two steps into his house and grabbed him firmly by the collar with both her ARMS. She pulled him toward her and looked him dead in the eyes, her mouth still cocked in a slight smile.

Mummy looked up at her face, beyond confused. Had he provoked her? Was this a person he had wronged before? But she didn’t seem familiar in the slightest! Why on Earth would she come to his house and-

His eyes widened at the sight before him. Out of nowhere his view of the woman began to quite literally cloud up in a puff of smoke. The steam covered her quickly and obscured her from all sight, save for the tiny glimpses that came through between the misty streaks. That smile remained, as did those dead white eyes, which-

Instantly, alike the next frame in a sequence, her eyes were now black. The pale shimmer of her irises and scleras had been replaced with a deep red. And the smooth tan of her skin? Dry purple.

Master Mummy was now looking at a reflection of himself. A perfect duplicate - like a long lost twin brother he didn’t know he had. The hands that were gripping him by his collar were  _ his _ hands - large and purple, wrapped tightly in yellowing bandages. The slight smile she had had was now a large and toothy grin, with the exact same massive chompers he bore.

“H-Honey...?” Came a voice from atop the stairs, where a tall woman in similar bandages was stood, slightly shaken.

Master Mummy - that is, the one who had just a moment ago been the young woman from the rain - turned up to face her. He dropped the grin on his face, then turned back to face the real Mummy in his grip.

With a heavy thump, the real Mummy had been thrown back once again to the broken steps he had been slammed to just a moment ago. His wife hurried down and crouched by his side.

He did his best to angle himself back upward and watched in awe as his duplicate stomped back out into the rain, leaving off into the distance.

Just what the  _ hell _ was that?

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The third and final candy apple spun about three or four times in all before slowing to a halt as it came to just beneath where the circus tent hung above. The crowd held its breath, near  _ certain _ something had gone wrong here - surely she didn’t mean to throw it  _ that _ high, right? But while the golden flame atop it seemed to tickle the fabric, it wasn’t quite enough to set it alight, and the candy apple began to fall back down. They watched in awe as Lola stood there with an ARM outstretched ahead of her, ready to catch it.

The crowd went wild. The height of that throw, the danger of its flame... And she still caught it firmly and easily, without a flinch?!  _ Bravo! _

Lola hopped back to her feet from the one-ARM handstand she had been in, brought the flaming candy apple to her face, and blew it out. She took a big bite from it with a grin as she soaked in the applause, which was enough to sweeten the taste of what was admittedly a rather burnt candy apple.

One bow later and the crowd began to disperse back into the night. Another successful performance! But as Lola returned to her dressing room post-match, a knock on the door came to break her much needed relaxation.

The door opened ajar and the big burly purple face of Master Mummy peered in with a smile. “Hello Lola!”

She smiled brightly at him. “What’s up, Mummy? I was super surprised to see you in the audience today!” She reclined back on her chair and reached into the nearby bowl of chocolate chips, scooping up a handful to munch on.

Master Mummy walked into the room and shut the door behind him. “Ah, well, I figured I’d catch your last show after puttin’ the kid to bed.”

“I appreciate it!” She smiled sincerely. “You’re always welcome to drop by.  _ Clean shirts optional~ _ ” She teased, motioning to the spaghetti stains on his shirt.

Mummy brushed the stain with the back of his hand. “Well, you were great out there! Impressive stuff.”

“Yeah? Fun fact - I was  _ not _ supposed to throw that last one that high.” Lola’s eyes sprung wide open as she shrugged. “I was  _ so _ sure it was gonna set the tent on fire. Scared the sugar outta me!”

He chuckled, looking over the room around him. “You’re quite the performer, Lola. Must be tiring being up this late.”

“You know it.” She sighed, leaning back a bit. “Gotta have longer open hours nowadays, though. Other attractions openin’ up soon, gotta compete.” She closed her eyes and began to yawn. “I could really do with a quiet even-”

Master Mummy suddenly struck Lola, sending her flying to the back of the room, knocking over her chair and several other things as she passed through them.

She squint her eyes open, putting her hand to the back of her head where it had collided with the wall behind her. “ _ D-Dude?! _ ” She muttered, an unbelievable sense of both confusion and betrayal in her voice. “Why did-” She cut herself off as she looked at the hulking man ahead of her.

Master Mummy stood tall, his shoulders wide, and his ARMS uncurled with two large Buffs on each of his hands. He had definitely hit her - that was easy enough to see - but there was something so  _ off _ about the way he looked...

She stared at him, wide-eyed. The betrayal she felt from his surprise action briefly slipped away as a question burnt harder at the forefront of her mind. “...Where’s your mask?!” 

The mummified giant before her wasn’t wearing a mask, yet his ARMS were extended and fight-ready. But... That shouldn’t be possible, right? Nobody can extend their ARMS out without a mask on, that’s like ARMS 101! So how in the hell could he have-

Her train of thought stopped abruptly as his hands gripped at her shoulders. He yanked her over to him suddenly and held her face-to-face.

Lola looked him dead in the eye with a look of clear and understandable  _ I thought we were friends, dude!  _ but Mummy seemed unphased by it. Then, as the steam began to raise around Mummy’s head, that look on her face changed to something more bewildered.

Lola threw Lola to the ground and turned back to the door. Lola propped herself up and looked up at her sudden doppelganger, and finally it clicked in her head that whatever she was dealing with right now probably shouldn’t get away without a fight. She hopped up quickly, a little wobbly from the throw before, and sent out a punch toward her.

The duplicate Lola turned on a dime and inflated herself like a balloon, her silly face stretching a goofy smile over her puffed-up cheeks. Lola’s ARM fell to the floor as it bounced off Lola’s shield, and Lola just stared in disbelief.  _ What?! _

Lola took the opportunity to send out an ARM of her own and struck the confused Lola back across the room.  _ Ouch. _

From the mess of broken furniture and fallen sweets, Lola watched as her mirror image turned back around and left through the door Mummy had come from, leaving her alone to process everything that had just happened.

Was this a dream? Was she seeing things? Had that flaming candy apple gone bad? Using ARMS without a mask, mimicking her appearance and abilities... None of this added up.

So much for a quiet evening.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mechanica snored slightly as she lay on the floor of her workshop, her arms wrapped tightly around the large wrench she had been using a few hours ago. She had a strange habit of falling asleep mid-engineering, honestly. That hard concrete floor she lay on couldn’t be all that comfortable, but for some reason she often managed to sleep soundly through the night regardless of comfort.

But tonight she awoke as the moon still hung in the sky, thanks to a harsh knocking on the garage door to the front of her warehouse. She split her eyes open and carefully propped herself up. Who could be here at  _ this _ hour? It was the middle of the night!

She did her best to silently get to her feet, feeling a little frightened in the dark. She gripped her wrench tightly in her hand  _ just in case _ . Though, just in case of  _ what _ , exactly? It likely wasn’t much good to defend herself with - it would be pretty darn hard to swing it around, given how weighty it was. Not that she  _ would _ need to defend herself.

The knocking came again, making Mechanica jump out of her skin and begin to shake a bit. O-Okay, maybe she  _ would _ need to defend herself...? Gah! No, it’s probably just someone whose car has broken down, and they just want to borrow the phone. Right...?

More knocking. Mechanica’s breath became a little more rapid. Should she get in her mech...? Or is that overkill?

She took a deep breath and assured herself that she’d be  _ fine _ . She’d have to stop being a scaredy cat sooner or later, right? What if the other ARMS fighters saw her like this! With a deep inhale, she headed over to the garage door and pressed the button to raise it.

As the door loudly began to creak upwards, Mechanica made out a familiar pair of goofy clown boots from what had been revealed so far. Lola...? Oh, okay,  _ phew! _ That’s a relief.

The door came up enough to reveal Lola’s face, and she smiled brightly down at Mechanica. “Heya, gumdrop!”

“H-Hey Lola!” Mechanica smiled back, still a little nervous. She felt silly for being so frightened just a moment ago.

“What’s that for?” Lola cocked her head to one side, motioning to the wrench Mechanica was holding.

“Huh? O-Oh!” She sighed. “I fell asleep while working on stuff, I think. I was kinda... Holding it.” A more accurate word would be  _ hugging, _ but that felt a little too dorky to say. Especially since this was the wrench she had had Ribbon Girl sign a couple years ago. “Um... Why are you here? It’s the middle of the night...”

“Oh, I just got done with my circus shows for tonight! I was walking through the neighbourhood and figured I’d stop by and show you a new trick I was working on~” The clown smiled brightly.

Mechanica felt a  _ little _ uneasy. Lola’s whole clown get-up had a habit of frightening a number of the other fighters, but to her it always seemed harmlessly fun. But here in the middle of the night, in the dark and the dim moonlight? Okay,  _ kinda _ creepy.

“You okay, gumdrop?”

“Hm? O-Oh, yeah, sorry! I was just... Yeah, I’d love to see a new trick!” She smiled nervously, trying not to worry herself further.

“ _ Sweet! _ ” She grinned. “Sit still, thennnn!”

Lola extended her ARMS and grabbed Mechanica softly by the shoulders and began to slowly rise her into the air. Something about this felt off.  _ Really off. _

Mechanica became uneasy again. Her breathing began to quicken and she shook a little. Lola, reacting to this, clamped her hands down tighter on Mechanica’s shoulders, holding her in place firmly.

The wrench clanged to the ground loudly as it fell from Mechanica’s grip. She put both her hands to Lola’s ARMS and fidgeted, trying to free herself, and watched in fear as Lola’s face began to engulf in a thick mist.

She had been raised in the air about a foot above Lola, but slowly she began to descend with Lola’s grip. She was being drawn closer to Lola, as her ARMS coiled back up and-

Mechanica dropped Mechanica to the floor. The sugar-speckled ARMS that were holding her were now flesh and blood, and her duplicate was looking over them. “I’m still not used to copying people  _ without _ ARMS.” She mumbled. “They feel so  _ squishy _ .”

Laying on the floor, Mechanica could do little more than look up at herself and quiver. The wrench was within arms reach, yes, but she couldn’t bring herself to even try and fight back like this.

The new Mechanica looked down at her, her expression serious and unforgiving. “You’re young and you’re used to a protective mech. So I’m not gonna hit you.” She turned to the outside and looked at the moon above. “But if you try to follow me I  _ will _ rip you out of that mech and scrape you against the concrete floor. Understood?”

With one more small glance over her shoulder, the duplicate walked away at a casual pace and disappeared into the night. Mechanica stayed frozen on the cold warehouse floor, tears streaming down her face, with little idea of just what the hell she was to do now.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ribbon Girl and Min Min lay together in a mess of blankets as the moonlight seeped ever so slightly through the curtains. They were both rather sound sleep, having gone to bed pretty late after an already busy day of ARMS fighting. Earlier nights were something Ribbon Girl had  _ insisted _ they tried for more often, to Min Min’s begrudging agreement, but they hadn’t really had much luck with that so far.

An array of rings came on the doorbell downstairs, and it took a great many repetitions to bring either one of them to open their eyes even just a little bit. Min Min squinted hers open slightly. Who the hell was bothering them now?  _ Go away. _

Min Min was, at first, content to just try and ignore it. But the ringing didn’t cease at all - it’s like their visitor was trying to burn out their doorbell’s battery or something. Ribbon Girl, the heavy sleeper that she was, was still firmly sound asleep. Which left Min Min to deal with it herself.

With a major sigh, she carefully removed her ARM from Ribbon Girl’s tight embrace and then wiped the back of her hand on the nearest blanket. Ribbon had  _ such _ a drooling problem, ew. She took a look at the nearby clock and drowsily got to her feet.

She clambered down the stairs as carefully as she could - there was no way she was turning any lights on, after all. Her eyes couldn’t take that right now. She made it to her front door and unlocked the bolt at the top, before turning the handle and opening it up.

“Mmmhm?” She groggily looked down. “Mechanica? What’s up...?”


	2. Incident Report

Min Min woke up a little from the simple sight of tears reflecting the moonlight in Mechanica’s face. “H-Huh? You okay, Mechy?” She immediately became _quite_ concerned.

“N-N-Not exactly...” She sniffled. She held onto the rim of her mech’s bucket nervously, like it was the only thing keeping her safe.

“What happened??” Min Min bent down a little, putting her hand on Mechanica’s.

“L-Lola came to see me a-and... I-I dunno exactly, she j-just... She was acting _w-weird..._ ”

Min Min peered into the darkness all around, as if expecting to see Lola out there somewhere. “Okay, just come inside, we’ll take care of you.” She made way to one side of the hallway and allowed Mechanica’s mech to pass by her and into the living room.

Mechanica switched off her mech, leaving it by the side of the sofa, and crawled out of it. She accepted a blanket from Min Min and curled up in it, holding her knees to her chest, still sniffing.

“So Lola turned up at your warehouse...?” Min Min reiterated, seating herself opposite Mechanica on the other sofa.

She nodded. “I-It was about an h-hour ago, I think. I-I took a while to get here in my m-mech...”

“And what did she do...?”

Her shoulders raised uncertainty. “I-I’m not even s-sure, really. She just k-kinda grabbed me and d-did a _thing_... A-and then it looked like there were two of me?”

“Two of you?” Min Min raised an eyebrow. She was still half asleep, admittedly, and that was a strange thing to try and understand.

“W-Well... She did th-this cloudy thing?” Mechanica waved her hand in front of her face, as if to mimic the steam effect she had seen. “A-And then it was just _me_.”

“...I don’t get it?” Min Min muttered.

“Th-There were _two of me._ L-Like all that smoke came up a-and then...” She sighed. “...I don't know. I don’t know what I saw... It all happened so quickly, a-and it was dark.”

“It’s okay.” Min Min reassured her. “Do you wanna stay here for tonight? We can talk about all this more with Ribs in the morning.” In all honesty, a big reason she was saying this was simply due to being _really_ tired and eager to get back to bed. She cared immensely for Mechanica, of course! ...But it was _really late._

Mechanica nodded. “I-I’ll try to remember things more clearly in the morning...” She let out a heavy yawn.

“I’ll get you another blanket and you can sleep on the sofa, if you want. I’ll get you a proper pillow, too - those sequin cushion things Ribs puts everywhere _suck_ to sleep on.”

True to her word, Min Min arranged a bit more comfort for Mechanica and assured her she’d just be a shout away if needed. And with that, she returned upstairs and got right back into bed with Ribbon Girl, who continued to sleep soundly without a single stir.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Munch munch, crunch crunch... Munch munch, crunch crunch...” Ribbon Girl mumbled as she hopped her way down the stairs the next morning. “Gotta munch, gotta cr-”

She paused in her step as she entered into the living room on her way to the kitchen, her eyes meeting Mechanica’s, as the latter sat up on the sofa with an open book in her hands - one she had brought with her the night before..

“...Hey, Mechy!” Ribbon Girl got out as her eyes ran around the room in confusion.

“Why were you saying that...?” Mechanica looked at her, in just as much confusion.

“Uhhh... I dunno.” Ribbon Girl admitted, a little embarrassed. “It’s just kinda a _thing_ I do when I go for breakfast, I guess...” She cleared her throat. “So, um, when did you get here...?”

“Oh? I thought Min Min would have explained...”

“She’s still asleep.” Ribbon Girl shrugged. “Did something happen last night?”

“Kinda...” Mechanica looked down, a little uneasy about it all. “Min Min said I could sleep here and we’d all talk about it once she’s up.”

“Ah.” Ribbon Girl nodded. “Want some breakfast, then?”

“Sure!” She smiled. “Gotta munch, gotta crunch.”

Ribbon Girl groaned, embarrassed. “You are _not_ allowed to tell Min Min about that.”

About an hour later, Min Min came downstairs too and headed right for the kitchen, where the other two were already sat. “Sup Mechy!” She greeted, now well-rested, before taking her seat and grabbing a few pancakes from the stack Ribbon Girl had prepared. “You sleep okay?”

“Mmhmm!” She nodded in return. “I’m really sorry for waking you up...”

“Nah, don’t worry ‘bout it.” Min Min smiled, squeezing a bunch of syrup onto her pancakes. “You clear your head a little bit? I couldn’t really make out what you were saying much last night.”

“Mm...” She nodded. “I’m still not super sure on what happened either, really. It doesn’t make much sense to me how I remember it.”

“Can one of you fill me in on this...?” Ribbon Girl added quietly, still in the dark.

“Mmm! Full story, Mechy.” Min Min motioned for, putting some pancake into her mouth.

“Okay, well...” She took a sip of her milk and then set the glass down. “I fell asleep while building something and then I woke up around... I dunno, but it was early in the morning. And there was someone banging on my door, so I went to open it and Lola was there.”

“Lola...?” Ribbon Girl repeated. “How did she know your address?”

“Um... I’m not sure, actually.” Mechanica took a moment to think to herself - it was something she hadn’t actually considered until just now. How odd. “Well, she said she was just passing by and wanted to show me a new circus trick or something. And then she grabbed me...”

Ribbon Girl looked solemnly at Mechanica, a twinge of worry in her eye. “...And then?”

Mechanica shrugged. “...I don’t know. From what I remember, she did this _thing_ where she kinda...” She paused again, then sighed. “I really don’t remember it right. It was this weird thing with smoke and then, like...” She shrugged.

“I don’t like it.” Min Min mumbled. “I was _just_ beginning to feel comfortable around Lola and then she pulls something like this.”

“W-Well I don’t think she necessarily meant bad! I-It was just weird...” Mechanica cleared her throat, uneasily remembering something. “...She did threaten me, though.”

“Threaten you?!” Ribbon Girl gasped, leaning forward. “Threaten you how??”

“Sh-She just said if I tried to follow her she’d... Hurt me, I guess.”

“Gosh.” Ribbon Girl looked wide-eyed at the table. “Well I am _not_ letting her get away with that.”

“Let’s beat her up.” Min Min casually suggested.

“ _Min._ ” Ribbon Girl sighed.

“Kidding!” She assured. “Mostly, anyway. What do you think we should do?”

Ribbon Girl thought for a moment. She wasn’t exactly the most confrontational kind of person herself, and Min Min still had something of an underlying fear of clowns to her, so neither of them would really be best to address Lola straight-up. “Hm.. Maybe we should tell Coyle? She’s rather protective of you, after all.”

Mechanica shrugged. “I-I guess so... I just don’t want Lola to get into _too_ much trouble.”

“Coyle isn’t exactly the easiest person to get talking to you, though.” Min Min added, running her finger into some of the syrup on her place and licking it off. “Even for Mechy, she’s still pretty ‘your-problems-aren’t-my-problems’.”

“She’s trying to be better, I think.” Mechanica smiled softly. “I think she _wants_ to help more than she does, she just doesn’t like doing so. But I’ve been helping her set up an open-hours kinda thing? It should be in a couple hours, actually.”

“That should be fun.” Min Min laughed to herself. “I can’t imagine she likes having open-hours.”

“She doesn’t.” Mechanica admitted, giggling a little.. “It’s only once a week and she’s been doing it for less than a month, but she’s complained about it a lot and tried to give up on it about a hundred times.”

“Well, she’s still our best bet.” Ribbon Girl sighed, taking Min Min’s empty plate over to the sink to watch it out. “We can leave shortly, then. I suppose it’s better to get there before anyone else does, or she’ll be less likely to listen to us.”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

About a half hour later the three of them pooled into Min Min’s car and headed off to the ARMS Lab. According to Mechanica, the first few open-hours sessions took place at the tip of a skyscraper in the middle of downtown during rush hour. It was clearly all in an attempt to discourage people from coming to see her, but it quickly became too much effort for her to have it anywhere else but the ARMS Lab anyway.

The trio arrived and Mechanica brought them in as guests, thankfully bypassing the visitor paperwork they would have otherwise had to do - yet another one of Coyle’s discouragement attempts. Mechanica made a brief stop to pick up Coyle’s mail for her, as she had a tendency to miss it herself, and then they headed to the designated area of the Lab where they were set to meet with Coyle. They soon came to a smart wooden door with a foggy glass window embedded in it that read ‘ _Dr. Coyle’s Babysitting Department_ ’. With a roll of her eyes, Ribbon Girl gave the door a knock.

“Y’know I _technically_ have another fourteen seconds before I open...” Coyle grumbled from within.

Min Min sighed and opened the door anyway, allowing the three of them to enter. In here was a rather classy office -  large mahogany bookcases lined with leather-bound novels, a series of world maps neatly pinned up on the wall, a small set up of tea and coffee equipment in the corner... It was the kind of thing you’d expect from a college professor who still had their sanity. Not a bad clean up, Coyle.

There was a tidy desk at the center of the room and a large and comfortable chair positioned behind it, where Coyle was currently sat, her feet up on the desk as she leaned back on it. “God, there are _three_ of you?” She grunted, immediately uninterested. “I need to start charging for this.”

Mechanica approached her. “I picked up your mail for you...” She set the stack of envelopes down on her desk gently and then stepped back to be with Ribbon Gir and Min Min.

Coyle picked up the letters. “Y’know today’s your day off, right?” She flicked through them lazily and set them back down.

“I-I know, I’m here because... Um...” She nervously played with the bottom of her shirt in her hands.

“Something happened last night.” Ribbon Girl spoke for her. “We figured it would be best to talk to you about it.”

“Fine, fine, take a seat.” Coyle sighed.

The three of them looked around, before Ribbon Girl spoke again. “There... _Are_ no seats here...”

“Oh yeah, forgot about that.” It wasn’t a coincidence, really. Who’d want to stick around for long if you had to stand the whole time, right? “So what do you want? _Please_ make it something important for once. I had Ninjara here last week complaining about a backache and Misango the week before sayin’ Spring Man got stuck down a well. _Neither_ of which actually mattered to me.” She leant back again. “Well, actually, it was Springtron that got him down there so I guess the well thing _was_ kinda my fault...”

“Mechanica got a visit last night.” Min Min began for them. “It was probably like two or three AM and-”

A knock on the door interrupted her. Coyle rolled her eyes and dramatically sighed. “Why do _so many of you_ have to come to these stupid things? _Learn to deal with your own stupid problems._ ” She muttered, before raising her voice. “Yeah, yeah, come in already...”

The door swung open and the four of them were met with Lola’s smiling face. “Honk honk, Coyle.”

“Ew, you’re in the clown stuff again? No thanks, bye bye.”

“Hey, I got stuff I need to talk about!” Lola glared, before turning to the three by her side. “Oh, hey girls.” Ribbon Girl glared at her, while Mechanica seemed to slip a little behind her for safety. Min Min seemed just about ready for a fight without any delay.

“Okay, fiiiine, what do you want then?” Coyle sighed. “Actually, let these three go first, they arrived before you.”

“Uhhh, it’s fine, she can go first.” Ribbon Girl mumbled, hoping it’d be something quick and pointless so Lola could get out of there before Coyle asked them for their own report.

“Okey dokey.” Lola shrugged, turning back to Coyle. “Mummy came to see me after my circus show last night and uhhhh...” She bit her lip. “Well, he’s said before that he had some sorta... Side-effect? For the resurrection stuff?”

“Oh, he has loads.” Coyle replied, sitting herself up a bit more. “Raisin’ the dead doesn’t come without its flaws. This better not be about his blood pressure, though.”

Lola shook her head. “He’s said before that there was a risk of, like, a rage-state or something...?”

Coyle’s eyebrow raised. “Yeah, he became what we referred to as ‘feral’ a couple times shortly after his resurrection. Starts fights, doesn’t communicate right... What you’d expect from a zombie, really. But one of those fast ones that are super violent - not those boring slow ones. Those movies always suck.” She gave a big sigh and leant forward, taking a notebook and a pen from her desk. “You think he entered that state again last night, then?”

“Well, he hit me.” Lola mumbled. “Seemed pretty ordinary before that. Oh! But his ARMS were out even though he didn’t have a mask on.”

The three girls to the side each seemed taken aback by that detail. Coyle, who had been scribbling Lola’s story into the notebook, paused and looked up at her. “What do you mean he didn’t have his mask on? You _can’t_ put your ARMS out without a mask on. That’s ARMS 101.”

“ _I know._ ” Lola rummaged through her colourful handbag, which was surprisingly deep. “But that’s what I saw.”

“Then you saw it wrong.” Coyle insisted.

“Well, my vision was a lil blurry after the hit, so I thought I _did_ see it wrong.” She pulled her hand out of the handbag. “But then I got camera footage from my security people.” She extended her hand to Coyle, attempting to pass her a- “Huh?” She blinked at the rubber duck she was holding her palm. “Sorry, this isn’t it!”

Coyle glared, unamused, as Lola began to rummage through her handbag again.

“Ah, here it is!” She pulled a rather long tennis racket out. “...Wait, no, this isn’t it either.”

“Lola...” Coyle sighed.

She removed a trophy shaped like herself, then a fully prepared turkey dinner, then a bowling ball...

“Y’know, I’ve got stuff I wanted to _do_ today...” Coyle continued to glare, impatiently. The other three to the side of the room were equally as tired of this gag as she was by now.

“...Ah!” Lola smiled as she removed a small USB drive and handed it to Coyle.

“ _Finally._ ” Coyle grumbled as she took the USB. “If this thing starts spraying bubbles the second I plug it in, _I swear..._ ” She picked up a laptop from out of another desk draw and paused, looking around her desk curiously. “...Hm.” She then settled on pushing the large globe she had on it to the floor, so she had space to set the laptop down.

Mechanica caught the globe just before it collided with the wooden floor paneling, and gently placed it to one side. Oddly enough, it had a series of red X’s and circles dotted around it on various major cities. Never change, Coyle.

With the USB in the laptop, Coyle skimmed through the footage and found the point Lola had talked about - Lola reclines back in her chair, begins to yawn, and Master Mummy’s ARMS extend quickly and equip some Buffs. “...What?” Coyle muttered, pausing and replaying the footage a couple times.

“See?” Lola shrugged. “Is that a thing of the resurrection orrrr?”

“No, it’s not...” She glared at it. She hit play and watched the rest of the scene. Mummy grabs Lola, brings her in close, and then-

Coyle’s eyes grew wide. “What the hell was _that?_ ” Once again, she began to replay it over and over. “He... He shapeshifted?!”

“I guess so?” Lola shrugged. "I had _no_ idea what to make of that. He got all smokey and then I was just lookin’ at another me.”

Mechanica’s eyes widened. “C-Can I see that?” She approached the desk cautiously as Coyle spun the laptop around for her. She, alongside Ribbon Girl and Min Min, watched the end of the clip where Mummy had changed into Lola.

Min Min blinked rapidly. She turned back to Mechanica, remembering what she had said the night before. _‘Two of me’..._

Mechanica turned back to Min Min and Ribbon Girl, fear struck across her face. “Th-That’s what I saw!” She pleaded. “That’s the same thing Lola did!”

“I what now?” Lola asked, confused.

Min Min turned to face her and addressed Coyle. “Lola came to Mechanica’s place last night and grabbed her, then-”

“No I didn’t!” Lola interrupted. “I was dealing with _that_ last night!” She insisted, motioning to the video on the laptop.

“ _Mechanica said..._ ” Min Min continued. “That Lola grabbed her and then got all that steam stuff in her face, and then there was another Mechanica in Lola’s place.”

Coyle leant back on her chair again. “Mummy grabs Lola then _becomes Lola_ ... Then that Lola grabs Mechanica and _becomes Mechanica..._ ”

“Wait, hold on.” Ribbon Girl paused. “Are we saying there’s someone going around shapeshifting into people...?”

“Hm.” Coyle thought to herself. “Well, two’s a coincidence and three’s a pattern. Until we hear another report of an encounter like this we should assume-”

Another knock came on the door.

“Ugh, really? Fine, come in.” Coyle sighed dramatically.

Kid Cobra peered into the room. “Yo, whddap guys!!”

“What are you here for?” Coyle got straight to the point, unwilling to bother with greetings.

“Yeah, uh, do you think it’s cool if I let a bro run over my ARMS for a live stream? I told my fans it’d be a thing for one millie subs, but I didn’t think I’d actually be getting there so quickly.” Everyone in the room seemed to roll their eyes at this, but Kid Cobra didn’t really notice. “Like, I guess it’d be cool? But my ARMS are snakes, and that doesn’t really survive being squashed as well as, like, ribbons or bracelets or...”

“Does this have anything to do with the shape shifter?” Coyle asked, bored.

“The what?”

“Did you run into _any_ other fighters last night?”

“Uhhh, no I-”

“Did anyone get all smokey and turn into an ugly snake?”

“...No?”

“Then I don’t care - go home.” Coyle shooed him away.

“B-But!”

“GOOOO HOMEEEE!” She insisted, until he sadly slipped back out the door. “Ugh. I am _so_ done with these open-hours. Never againnnn.” She turned the laptop back around to herself and rewatched the clip. “Okay, so, we need a timeline here. Master Mummy takes Lola’s face and then Lola takes Mechanica’s. Was that the _real_ Mummy or...?”

“I could try calling him, I guess?” Ribbon Girl asked.

“Wait wait wait, hold on...” Coyle stopped her, as she grabbed that stack of mail from earlier. “I saw a letter from Mummy here... Ah!” She withdrew a purple envelope that bore the title ‘Master Mummy - Incident Report’. “See? Smart Mummy, writing in instead of showing up. Less hassle that way.”

“‘Cept you didn’t even read it ‘til now.” Min Min muttered under her breath.

Coyle ran here eyes over the paper quickly. “Hm... Okay... _Huh._ ”

While Coyle was busy, Lola turned her head back to Mechanica. “You okay?”

“Hm? I-I think so?”

“I mean after last night. I-I swear that wasn’t _me!_ I would never do that.”

“O-Oh! It’s okay...” Mechanica smiled softly. “I’m happy to hear it wasn’t really you, i-it just gave me a bit of a fright.”

Coyle put down the letter. “Okay, timeline: A _strange woman_ turns up at Mummy’s door in the early night. He doesn’t recognise her, so we could very well assume that that’s the shapeshifter’s base form. That or she nabbed some non-League fighters before going after us.” She picked up her pen again and began adding all of this to her notebook. “The woman attacks Mummy and then copies him. He didn’t have his mask on at the time, so when he got copied she copied him unmasked. But she still had her own mask on under that Mummy disguise, so that’s why Mummy had his ARMS out like that.”

“Wait, so it wasn’t the real Mummy who came to see me?” Lola asked.

“Evidently not, no. Though we don’t know his side of things in _detail..._ Hm. We need to speak to Mummy more about this.” She put her pencil down and sighed. “Woman takes Mummy’s face, then takes Lola’s, then takes Mechanica’s. Now we just need to know where she went next...”

“Well, why did she go in that order?” Ribbon Girl posed.

“Hmmm.” Coyle bit her lip. “I guess if you wanted to get into Lola’s dressing room without suspicion, you’d go as one of her closest friends.” Lola and Mummy were pretty close friends outside of ARMS fighting, after all.

“And Lola would be someone Mechanica wouldn’t really mind seeing turn up in the middle of the night either.” Min Min added.

“Right. So where would she go in Mechanica’s form?” Coyle returned.

Mechanica shrugged nervously, turning back to the two beside her. “I-I guess I’m closest to Ribbon Girl and Min Min...?”

Min Min squinted at her. “You _are_ the real Mechanica, right?”

“Yesss!” She pleaded. That much was evident, in fairness, because Mechanica had arrived in her mech. “But, I mean, I went straight to you two and you didn’t see another me anywhere, right?”

“She could have gone to you, Coyle.” Ribbon Girl mumbled. “I suppose you’d be the next closest.”

Coyle scratched her head. “I’d be surprised if she knew my address, though. I was in bed by then - I need my beauty sleep too.” She sighed deeply. “And I didn’t see her, sooo...”

Min Min’s eyes widened slowly. “Uh, Coyle, do you have those eye scanner lock thingies in the Lab?”

“Hm? Retinal scanners? Yeah, I installed ‘em ages ago. Figured they’d be cool but they’re a pain to use for every damn door. Plus no one likes the light shined in their eyes every morning.” She leant back on her chair again, casually. “Most of us just use the key cards.”

“Dude?!” Min Min stared at her, bewildered that she could be so casual over a _major_ security flaw. “Mechanica _works for you!_ ”

“...And?” Coyle stared back, unsure what her point was.

“AND SOMEONE JUST COPIED HER EYES??”

Coyle’s face fell quickly as her eyes sprung wide open. “ _SHIT!_ ”


	3. Reflections II

The shining blue slight made Mechanica’s eye water a bit as it finished scanning her in. She wiped away the tear and entered into the Lab’s vault, whistling casually as she looked around. The vault was large and somewhat imposing - there was a  _ lot _ here, all set aside in similar looking cases with similar looking locks and markings. Each case had a serial number on it, sure, but that wasn’t much help as there seemed to be little rhyme or reason as to the order in which these were all laid out.

Mechanica sighed. It’d take all damn night to look through these things! And it was already pretty early into the morning. If she stuck around any longer the ARMS staff would start showing up again, and that’d make things at least  _ somewhat _ more difficult for her.

An echo of heavy rapid footsteps came from the hallway she had just entered from, getting gradually louder. Looks like  _ someone _ had noticed the vault had been entered. They were coming quick too, so surely she’d have to hide quickly and-

Springtron entered the room suddenly and glared directly at her, his metal casing chattering slightly as his internal engine was fully prepared for him to start throwing ARMS.

Mechanica looked back at him casually, standing right where she had been, with no attempt at all to hide herself. “...Hey?”

Springtron looked at her and slowly calmed his engines.

“Yeah, Coyle told me to come in here.” She smiled at him. “You don’t have to be so protective - it’s only  _ me! _ ”

Springtron looked down a bit, as if apologetic.

“I mean, if you’re just eager to see me, that’s fine too!” She giggled. “But I don’t have much time to do any repairs right now, I’m afraid. I’m looking for something.”

Springtron looked to the large vault collection for a moment and then headed back for the door.

“Hey!” Mechanica squealed. “You’re just gonna leave me like that?”

He turned to face her, as if confused.

“You could at least  _ help! _ ” She sighed, rummaging in her pocket for a slip of paper. “I need the case with this serial...”

Springtron took the paper slip and examined the handwritten code on it. He turned back to the collection and slowly began to walk through it, as Mechanica followed. He came to about the end of the room, where he then reached out his ARMS and pulled a case from the very top of a highly stacked tower of cases.

“Thank youuu!” Mechanica blushed, putting out her hands for it.

Springtron motioned to hand it to her, but then paused, looking at the case closer. He looked back at her and pointed to the classification marked on it -  _ Deep Green permissions required. _ That was a level exclusive to Coyle and Coyle alone.

Mechanica looked at it and then looked back up at Springtron. “W-Well  _ yeah? _ I told you Coyle asked me to come get it! It’s hardly going to be of much use to me alone.” She sighed. “...If you want to call Coyle and double check, go ahead. But you better hope she’s awake...”

Springtron thought to himself for a moment, before ultimately deciding to just hand her the case without checking-in with his creator. He had a soft spot for Mechanica, given all the repairs she had given him, and trusted her well enough that what she was saying about delivering it to Coyle was true. Thank god for that.

Mechanica took the case from him with a smile. “Thank you!~” It was a decently large case, perhaps about half the size of Mechanica’s mech or so. It was pretty heavy too, but she insisted she could carry it alone and that Springtron should go back to his charging outlet for the night.

Springtron obliged to this and nodded her farewell, before leaving her alone again in the vault. She laughed to herself a little - this was all surprisingly easy, after all.

She picked up the handle of the case and briefly swore to herself - it was  _ really _ heavy, and she wouldn’t be able to switch to a strong, more ARMS-having face until she was at least out of Springtron’s general range. 

She took the case to the door of the vault and briefly lay it there, before heading back to the series of servers that were lined up by the back wall. She pondered for a second, then selected a specific few of them and unplugged them from the mainframe, resting them on the floor ahead of her.

Springtron would certainly hear a change in her footsteps, but she was in the clear well enough for making a brief switch if she stood firmly still, right? With a burst of steam around her, she returned to the curly-haired young woman she had been earlier that night when she had first met with Mummy. Ahhh, it was so nice to be back in her own shoes!

With a cheeky wave to the far-off security camera, she slipped a small electromagnetic device from her pocket and pressed it to the top of the servers she had removed. She pressed a button on the top of the device and, after a short moment, a quick splatter of electricity shot around it, causing a small puff of dark smoke to come from the servers below - which she then casually blew away.

She slipped the device back into her pocket and misted right back into being Mechanica, who then set aside the broken servers and made her way back to the case she had put by the door. She paused for a moment, overlooking the nearby case that was of a similar size, though somewhat smaller. 

She sighed deeply. “Better to be safe than sorry, I guess.” With some decent effort, she heaved the case atop the one from before and began to slide the two of them out together.

After dragging them through the empty ARMS Lab for a good long while, she decided to take a much needed breather and relax for a moment. She peered around the room, simply to see what kind of a place this really was on the inside. It was then that a small green light coming from one of the rooms caught her eye.

She approached the room and peeked inside. “Ohhh?” She smiled softly. “Hello there~”

Inside was a series of large tubes, and in the foremost one was a familiar glob of green goo. He seemed to be asleep, but she figured a quick wakeup wouldn’t be a bad idea.

A flick of the nearby switch drained the tank of it’s syrup-like liquid, leaving him in there alone. Another switched raised the tube itself, allowing him to blob out and onto the floor. 

“Heya buddy!” Mechanica smiled.

The display on Helix’s face lit up. “Oobloo?” He bubbled.

“Heyyyy! Did you sleep well?”

“Blo blaaaahb!” He glooped at her.

“...Okay, well,  _ anyway... _ ” She sighed.

She didn’t really want to do this bit but whatever - she grabbed him as firmly as she could, despite his gooey nature, and faded herself into him. To Helix’s credit, he didn’t seem to be phased by this at all. He barely even seemed to notice.

Helix looked at Helix, then turned to look in the reflection of a nearby floor tile. “Bluuuub.” Came a very weirded-out tone.

Helix faded out again and returned to being Mechanica. She quietly vowed to herself never to turn into him again because, well,  _ ew, _ and then worked on getting the real Helix back into his tube.

With Helix tucked away and back asleep in his strange shimmering water, she returned once again to the case Springtron had picked out for her. She heaved it up as best she could, careful not to drop the one atop it, and carefully made her way back out of the Lab.

About midway into the parking lot she took another deep breather. Couldn’t these cases have come with wheels or something?! She turned to the nearest security camera, which could probably barely see her in the dark anyway, and sighed. “This is a lot of work, y’know. Of all the ARMS League fighters, you just  _ had _ to hire the child...” The camera certainly wouldn’t be able to hear her, but the comment seemed to be more for herself than anyone else.

Finally, reliably far away enough now, she transformed herself back into the stained-shirt wearing Master Mummy, who picked up both cases with  _ immense _ ease, and stomped off into the distance without a care.


	4. Barbeque Brainstorm

“And that’s basically the gist of it.” Master Mummy sighed. “I can have the wife show you the stairs that got broken, if you want. But that was all me - the woman didn’t touch ‘em.”

“Hm.” Ribbon Girl puffed up her cheeks, looking out into the horizon. “She doesn’t sound familiar at all. So what’s _her_ story?”

“Ye shuh whash thu khih ahhz ahn thake hames.” Min Min munched through a mouth full of hotdog.

“ _Don’t talk with your mouth full._ ” Ribbon Girl glared.

Min Min gulped it down. “Sorry, hun. Gotta munch, gotta crunch!” She winked, taking another big bite. Ribbon Girl groaned silently.

Master Mummy flipped another burger on the grill. “I’m really sorry she came after you all. I stupidly figured she was after me and me alone.”

“S’cool, dude.” Lola shrugged. “Just a sticky toffee river under the bridge.”

“I should have at least warned you of her.” Mummy insisted. “And I thought writing into Coyle would have been enough. I really should have showed up in person...”

Master Mummy stood before a large charcoal grill with an apron tied around him. He hadn’t visited Coyle in her open-hours that morning simply because he had already had plans - he was hosting a barbeque for his neighbourhood and needed the morning for preparations, rather than just leaving all of the work to his wife. Being a family of abnormal purple mummies tended to scare people away, so this barbeque was supposed to be a sign of good faith between his family and the others nearby. That was pretty fair.

“But I still feel awful not doing more to prepare you all. Are you sure you don’t want any food?” He looked at them all, apologetically.

Min Min gulped down the last of her hotdog. “I do!” She wiped the corner of her mouth with the back other hand. “Gimmie some... Ribs!” She turned to wink at her girlfriend. “I _loveee_ eating r-”

“You make that joke _every time_.” She sighed, rolling her eyes.

Mummy grabbed some with his tongs and placed it on her paper plate, then addressed Lola. “So you say she came to see you and Mechanica after leaving me on the stairs?”

“Yup.” Lola shrugged back. “Then presumably hit up the ARMS Lab. Mechy and Coyle are checkin’ it out right now, they just sent us ahead.”

“I see.” He sighed, adding more sausages to the grill. “Well I’m not sure what else I can tell you, really. It was all very quick.”

A young boy ran up to Ribbon Girl and tapped her on the shoulder. “H-Hi! Sorry, could I get your autograph? I’m a _huge fan_ of your music!” Ribbon Girl smiled, blushing a little, and accepted his pen and notebook gracefully. As she signed, the boy turned back to Mummy. “Hey, this is a great barbeque! My parents are really having fun.”

Mummy turned with a smile to the couple by the fence, who were chit-chatting with his wife. “I’m glad this is all working out. I was pretty worried no one would show.” His yard was actually rather full with local guests for once.

The boy took his notebook back from Ribbon Girl and thanked her plenty before making his way back to his parents. “I’m really sorry all this happened the night before your barbeque.” She sighed. “I doubt you needed the extra stress.”

“Ah, well, it happens.” He accepted. “It’s pretty futile to work on my blood pressure right now anyway. My son wants to hit up ARMS League World the day it opens. It’d all be undone in an instant!”

ARMS League World - or ARMS League World Park & Celebrations, for it’s full title - was a brand new theme park opening up nearby that had all its attractions loosely based on fighters in the ARMS League roster. Why does a fighting platform need a theme park? Who cares: _you can get inflated-Lola balloons at the entrance!!_

“Oh damn!” Min Min grinned with barbecue sauce all over her face. “Is that opening soon??”

“On Friday, yes.” Mummy cautiously confirmed.

“And today’s, what, Monday? That’s only like four nights away! Oh we are _so_ going.”

“Ab-so-lu-tely no-t.” Ribbon Girl firmly replied. “That place looks like hell on Earth.”

“Whaaaaat? Nooooo!” Min Min assured. “It’s a wicked-ass theme park with rides-” She emphasized with her hands enthusiastically. “ _Based! On! Us!!_ ”

“That place _does_ look pretty rockin’.” Lola agreed. “But they went super boring with my ride. _Lola’s Sweet Street?_ It’s just a slow drive through a candy land! Borrrrringgggg.”

“Sucks, dude.” Min Min grinned. “They got a _wicked_ coaster for me! It’s got this awesome dragon cart that goes _NYOOOOOOM_ at lightning speeds~”

“Sounds awful.” Ribbon Girl mumbled, shaking her head.

“What do they got for Ribs?” Min Min posed to Lola.

“S’called the Ribbon Twister, I think. Just a coaster with a ton of loops, and I guess it looks like a ribbon or something?”

“Oh cool - I hate it!” Ribbon Girl smiled fakely. “I don’t even want to _think_ of a ride like that.”

“You big babyyyyyyyyyyyy!” Min Min sighed. “Do they have any coasters _don’t_ have loops, then? Ribs thinks they’re ‘dangerous’.”

“ _You go like entirely upside down for a moment, why_ **_wouldn’t_ ** _that be dangerous?_ ” Ribbon Girl muttered viciously.

“They got the King Cobra, which is mostly just straight and up, down, and around. But it’s also, like, the fastest in the park. Or _any_ park? It’s got a world record or somethin’.”

“Nooope. Nope nope nope.” Ribbon Girl inhaled dramatically. “ _Never_ happening.”

“Hey guys!” Mechanica smiled, approaching them from around the side of the house, Coyle at her side. “Sorry we’re late...”

“Yo, Mechy!” Min Min grinned. “Come to ARMS League World with me on Friday!”

Ribbon Girl gasped. “No no _no,_ you are _not_ taking her there! _I will not let you have her killed._ ”

“That sounds fun! I hope I’m tall enough for all the fun rides.” She smiled, before frowning. “They were super boring with my ride... It’s just a little kiddy train that goes like three miles an hour.”

“Ah, good! That’s perfect for Ribs, then~” Min Min teased.

“Could we please focus for a moment?” Coyle glared at the others. “The shapeshifter _did_ break into the ARMS Lab last night. Min Min’s retinal scanner point proved true.” She grabbed the tablet from under her ARM and began to flick through some things on it. “Master Mummy...”

“Oh, would you like some barbeque?” He asked as he motioned to the grill.

“N-” Coyle paused and took a look at the grill. “...Okay, yeah, I’ll take a steak actually. Smells good.” She passed him the tablet as he handed her a plate of meat, and they exchanged them. “Is that the woman who attacked you?”

Mummy looked over the image - a blurry security camera shot from the ARMS Lab vault. “Yes, I believe it is.”

“She spent most of her time there as Mechanica, but she flickered back into that form for a short moment and looked right at the camera. I think she _wants_ us to see her.” Coyle bit straight into her steak with a mighty chomp.

Ribbon Girl took the tablet from Master Mummy and looked at it, as Min Min and Lola watched from over her shoulder. “This is her...? She looks so young...” She appeared to be, after all, only about as old as Ribbon Girl - perhaps a touch younger, even. She hit the play button in the corner and watched as the girl destroyed the servers in front of her, and then faded back into Mechanica’s form. “Hm. Well it’s definitely the same thing we saw on the circus’ tape. What was she doing in the Lab?”

Coyle wiped the corner of her mouth subtly. “Well what you saw there is her destroying some of our servers. To be specific, she selected the ones with our databases on ARMS people who come in for masks. We can’t exactly make out what her ARMS are made of from this footage, but if we could we would have been able to use that database to narrow down who exactly she is, based on ARMS material and other visual factors. I guess she was covering her tracks.”

“She, um...” Mechanica started. “...She also stole some things from the vault.”

“Such as?” Min Min raised her eyebrow.

Coyle stayed silent, taking back the tablet and putting it under her ARM again.

“Uh...” Mechanica looked nervously at Coyle. “It was all Deep Green classed stuff, so, um... Coyle doesn’t really want to tell us what it was.”

“That’s reassuring.” Min Min sighed.

“It was two large cases. That’s all you need to know.” Coyle glared. “Springtron, the _hunk of junk_ he is, helped her find them. I don’t _care_ if he thought it was Mechanica - he should have been following security protocols. _Useless scrap heap._ ” Coyle bitterly grumbled, catching a cautious eye from the nearby neighbours who were trying to enjoy the barbeque.

Master Mummy cleared his throat. “I-I really don’t mean to dismiss you, Coyle, but I do want to keep things... _Calm_ around here. I’m really trying to get these people to like us.”

She sighed. “This isn’t really the best place for a meeting anyway, honestly. Any one of these people could be her in disguise...” She glared around the yard.

“ _Coyle, please._ ” Master Mummy pleaded.

She flicked her eyes back at him, then addressed the mix of fighters. “From now on, don’t trust any fighter you see unless they’re accompanied by another fighter who can vouch for them. As far as we know they work _alone._ ” She struck a finger toward Ribbon Girl and Min Min. “You two are gonna be my best buddies for this investigation, seeing as you’re practically always together as it is. Avoid public places as much as you can for the immediate future.”

“Gotcha.” Ribbon Girl nodded, despite fully intending to continue with her planned fan meet-and-greets coming up. C’monnn, what’s the harm in that? Min Min will be there to protect her and she’ll protect Min Min. Easy.

“Is this gonna end with me pointing a gun at two different Ribbon Girls?” Min Min joked. “‘Cause I dunno which one to shoot!”

“Just ask how each of ‘em feel about ARMS League World.” Lola smirked.

“Oh, yeah!” Min Min grinned. “Then I’ll just shoot the one who _doesn’t want to go._ ” She glared at Ribbon Girl, teasingly.

“Har har.” Ribbon Girl rolled her eyes. “I’m sorry I love you too much to _let you get killed in that DEATHTRAP._ ”

Coyle retrieved a small bit of paper from her pocket and scribbled a number onto it, then extended it to Ribbon Girl so that only she could see. “Memorize this number _silently_ so you can repeat it to me when if I have to call you later.”

“Uhhh...” Ribbon Girl squinted at it. “Okay, uh, I got it.”

Coyle threw the paper scrap into the flame of the grill. “We’ll switch up meeting places and get together whenever have we have a significant development here. Remember - _watch your backs._ We don’t know for certain that getting into the ARMS Lab’s vault was her main objective. She could very well still be after the rest of us.” 

“So what about Mummy & I?” Lola mumbled. “We good orrrrr?”

“Hm.” She squinted. “I guess so. The clip from the vault shows her returning to her base form and then going _back_ into Mechanica’s. That should imply she doesn’t need to stay in a form to keep it, so I doubt she’ll need to revisit either of you for anything. But all the same - if you see anything suspicious, say something.”

“Should I warn the others, then?” Ribbon Girl asked, pulling out her phone.

“Would be a good idea to do so, yes. Best to give them a heads up.” She turned to leave the premises. “If any of ‘em run into her and actually manage to fight ‘em off? Lunch is on me.” She turned her head quickly over her shoulder again. “But, like, don’t _actually_ tell them that, though.”

With that, Coyle vanished with a shimmering electrical blue light, and presumably walked away.


	5. Reflections III

“YO!” Kid Cobra shouted to the camera his snake-friend held to his face. “IF WE CAN _SM-SM-SM-_ ** _SMASH_** TEN THOUSAND LIKES ON **THIS! STREAM!** I’M GONNA DO THE ONE MILLIE SPECIAL TO-TO-TO- _whaaaat?_ -TO-TO- _TONIGHT!_ ”

“YOOOO SNAKE, WHAAAAT?” His cameraman bigged him up.

“YOU KNOW IT, BROTHA!”

“AND _WHAT’S_ THE ONE-MILLIE SPECIAL AGAIN?”

“UHHHHHHHHHHHH...” He smirked beneath his mask with a short, sly laugh. “S’ONLY A MOTHER-SLITHERING _CAR_ RUNNIN’ OVER MY MOTHER-SLITHERING _ARMSSSSS_ MY DUDE!”

“SIIIIIIIIIIICK, MAN, YOU _CRAZYYYYYY!"_

“CAN Y’ALL MAKE SOME NOISEEEEE?” He pleaded to the nearby group of other snake-men and snake-women, raising his ARMS in the air. He only had a small posse locally, but they cheered wildly for him all the same and the chatlog on his stream went crazy just as hard. “ALRIGHT BOIZ, WE SHREDDIN’ THIS!”

With that, Kid Cobra backflipped right onto his snakeboard and began to grind around at a rapid pace. It was some pretty sick stuff, in all honesty. “GO COBRA, GO COBRA, GO COBRA, GO!” His posse chanted as they watched.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, just as he spun around the rim of the court, a small figure jumped from the sidelines and latched onto him hard. He gasped, but they held on tightly, not letting up.

“YO, WHAT THE FUCK?” The cameraman voiced aloud from the sidelines. “SOME LITTLE GIRL’S ON YA, DUDE!”

But Kid Cobra wasn’t so easily restrained and slithered out form her grasp quite quickly. He spun around on his board and kicked her just as she slipped off, sending her crashing down to the court floor. He spun his board to a halt and looked at his assailant.

Mechanica propped herself up on the floor. “Gah...” She groaned, holding her side. “ _That actually kinda hurt._ ”

“M-Mechanica...?” Kid Cobra mumbled, stunned. “W-Wait, no, you’re that-”

Mechanica smirked and flipped back through the air, a cloud of smoke streaming after her. By the time her feet hit the floor again a young woman had taken her place - one Kid Cobra had had described to him a few hours earlier in a rather long text message.

Kid Cobra glared at her. “WHAT BEEF YOU GOT WITH ME, GIRL?”

“Consider me a collector.” She smiled. “You’re next on my list.”

Kid Cobra’s cameraman, still streaming all of this to a chatlog full of question marks, zoomed in on the young woman who had suddenly appeared. “YOOO, WHAT THA FUCK IS GOIN’ ONNN?!” He voiced.

The cloak she had bore the night before was gone now, and instead her outfit could be summed up as more... Young 2010 women’s fashion, perhaps? A rather comfortable-casual look, if a little odd in places.

Her shoes were a deep purple with a short, thick heel. From there her legs went up in striped tights - interestingly, with one leg  of the tights in a rather pale tone and the other in a rather dark tone. These came to a pair of high-waist shorts in a deep blue, which met with a tucked-in light cyan shirt (sleeveless, as was common for ARMS-havers) that had a small diamond-shaped window at the front. From her neck dangled a strange pendant with a shining surface and a unique design on it of two faces looking at one another. Or perhaps some sort of vase, depending on how you looked at it?

But most notable of all was her ARMS, which were now distinctly recognisable as being made of _mirror._ The cameraman could see his own reflection in them as he stood from afar, angling the camera her way.

“Look, I ain’t gonna fight you!” Kid Cobra insisted from atop his snakeboard. “That wouldn’t be much fair, I’m an ARMS fi-” And just like that, a shimmering mirror ARM swung forward and clobbered him off of his board. He fell back and scraped along the floor briefly, before regaining himself and flipping back to his feet.

“YOOO, WHAT THE HELL?!” His cameraman gasped as she transformed again. “YO, IS THAT MUMMY?”

Kid Cobra glared. “Seriously, dawg, I don’t wanna have to fight you!”

“Shut up already.” Mummy’s grizzley voice came out. “Sit still or start swinging.”

“YOOOOOOO! **MAN!** ” The cameraman gasped as the viewer count _skyrocketed_ . “THIS DUDE DOESN’T EVEN GOT HIS _MASK_ ON, MAN!”

Mummy sent out an ARM, to which Kid Cobra slipped past and returned with one of his own. Mummy took the blow and did his best to strike back. After a few hits on him and a few too many misses on his own part, clearly she had realized he was a little too slow and large for an opponent like Kid Cobra.

“OHHH DAWGGGG, IT’S HAPPENING AGAIN!” The cameraman screamed as Mummy suddenly swapped out for Helix.

“Bluuuuuu boooo...” Helix seemed to... Groan? She didn’t much like how he _felt_.

More ARMS started flying, but more and more it seemed like Helix was gaining the upper hand. Kid Cobra’s strikes would be dodged rather easily as Helix stretched around them, or pooled down into a puddle to slip beneath them. The hits sent forth toward Kid Cobra began to connect more and more, as they were faster and less predictable.

Kid Cobra did his best to skate around on his snakeboard for a bit of added agility, but before too long it came to ahead with a single well-placed punch colliding right with his forehead.

“DAWGGG, NO!!!” His cameraman gasped as the rest of his posse watched on in horror.

Kid Cobra fell straight to the floor and groaned, as Helix blobbed over to him and grabbed onto him tightly. A short cloud of steam later and there were now _two_ Kid Cobras.

“NO, DAWG, WHICH ONE IS _REAL?!_ ” Pleaded the cameraman, despite the two still being in the same placed they had been in before.

The Kid Cobra standing above him faded back into her natural form. “Well, that was fun.” She smirked. “See you around, snake boy.” And with that, she hurried off into the darkness.

The cameraman shook the camera hard as he hurried over to where Kid Cobra lay. “YOOO, KAY-CEE! YOU GOOD, MAN?”

He groaned, propping himself up on the floor. “Damn, she got me, dawg.” The rest of his posse soon joined around him to make sure he was okay.

“DAWG, THAT WAS HARD TO WATCH!” He admitted. “BUT Y’KNOW WHAT? I WATCHED IT...” He sprung back, raising his ARMS in the air. “AND SO DID FOR-FOR-FOR- _FORTY THOU’ PEEPS, MY DAWG!_ ”

“OHHHH _DIP!_ ” Kid Cobra yelped, getting right back to his feet with a flip. “FORTY THOU’ FANS IN THE STREAM? _HELL YEAH, DAWG!_ **_SMASH THAT LIKE, Y’ALL!_ ** ”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The punching bag swayed back and forth as Spring Man, who stood a good distance away from it, pummeled it with strikes from afar. He hopped back and forth on his feet, working on his stance and his breathing, when he heard some quiet yet heavy footsteps on the other side of the gym.

Spring man stopped in place and stood tall, still facing the punching bag. The gym was closed after-hours and only he, as the Spring Stadium representative, was allowed in regardless. The tranquility of training alone was good for his ego, he thought. It’s always about the fighting - not showing off.

So for someone to arrive now, well, there was little doubt in his mind as to who it could be. “Figured you’d turn up sooner or later.” He mumbled, wiping the sweat from his brow.

“Ah.” Came Master Mummy’s voice. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to intrude. I just wanted to get some late-night training done to unwind a bit, now that the kid’s asleep.”

“You can cut the act.” Spring Man finally turned around to face him. “Coyle’s filled us all in. I mean, the stained shirt gives it away pretty easily.”

Master Mummy cocked a smile and began to be obscured by smoke, until the young woman was all that was left where he stood, that very same smile still on her face. “Bold of you to call me out like that.”

“I just don’t like to beat around the bush.” He shrugged. “So, are we gonna do this?”

She raised an eyebrow. “You’re just gonna let me copy you without a fight...?”

“Oh, good heavens, _no!_ ” He laughed. “No no, I think you misunderstand - I’m _asking_ for the fight.” He banged his gloves together a bit. “It’s not in my nature to go down without one. And I think I can take you!”

“Hm.” She smiled. “That’s kinda what I hate about ARMS fighters. So loud and in-your-face.” Her body became engulfed in mist and her voice changed as she spoke to one a bit higher and more... Fun. “If you want a fight, then let’s fight.”

Spring Man approached the ring at the center of the stage, and Lola - with a roll of her eyes - got in alongside him. He hopped on the spot for a moment, getting in the right mindset. “Ready when you are.”

Lola equipped some Funchucks and took a long swing at him, which he dodged back and returned with a swing of his own Toaster.

ARMS flew back and forth, and Lola began to get progressively bouncier throughout - hopping up and down to confuse his accuracy as best she could.

It actually wasn’t much similar at all to fighting the _real_ Lola. Her form and abilities may have been copied, but the fighting style clearly wasn’t. But if anything, this just made the fight _harder,_ as every first expectation in Spring Man’s mind seemed to pull from the _real_ Lola, and he had to remind himself that this was the copycat.

But he still outshined her in the long run, with the majority of his hits going through and the majority of hers being blocked on his shield. All that training paid off, after all.

“Hm.” She panted, noting Spring Man was keeping the upper hand quite easily. “Let’s try something new, then.”

Spring Man was now fighting against Kid Cobra, who was having a much easier time slipping under his swings. A couple solid punches began making their way toward him, and he couldn’t help but feel somewhat surprised - this wasn’t a _professional_ ARMS fighter, after all, so why was he actually working up a sweat? Lucky he only got stronger the more roughed-up he got!

Kid Cobra spun a bit after a successful Toaster hit landed squarely to his jaw, setting him alight momentarily. By the time he had collided again with the floor, she was back to her usual self again.

She panted heavily, propping herself up as best she could. “Yikes, you’re pretty strong...” She shook her head, trying to regain her composure.

“I don’t appreciate having to fight my friends like this.” Spring Man looked down at her. “There’s no honor in that.”

“Honor isn’t something... I really wanna _bother_ with right now...” She carefully got to her feet and looked back at him. “Especially not against you. You’re wayyy tougher than you look!”

Spring Man smirked. “So are we done here? ‘Cause I’m not going down without a fight and, uh,” He laughed a little. “You don’t seem much capable of beating me.”

The woman laughed to herself in response, causing his smile to fade. She grew a smirk of her own, and then shrugged. “Who says I have to play fair, though?” Smoke began to raise all around her.

Mechanica started to approach Spring Man, who cautiously put his back hands up to continue to the fight.

Mechanica jumped a little, her eyes beginning to water. “W-Wait, are you gonna h-hit me??”

“W-Wha...?” He glared at her. “Y-You’re not...”

She continued to approach, remaining rather meek and shaky as she did so. Spring Man backed up against the end of the ring, uncomfortable with the thought of hitting her out of her mech like this. Even though he _knew_ it wasn’t the real Mechanica.

At one point he drew back his ARM, telegraphing his move quite heavily as a warning. Mechanica jumped again, and shakily put her arms up to protect herself, making Spring Man feel awful. “ _Y-You can’t just do this!_ ”

“I-If I have to th-then I will...!” Mechanica quivered, now within arm’s reach of Spring Man.

Okay, so, he didn’t _have_ to fight her, right? I mean, what’s she gonna do, punch him? She didn’t have ARMS in this form and Mechanica wasn’t exactly the strongest person... He could wriggle out of any grab she tried, so she didn’t _really_ have the upper hand here. After all, he was-

Mechanica suddenly struck a fist forward and whacked Spring Man hard between the legs, causing him to drop to the floor immediately in aching pain. “Whoops!” She giggled. “Cardinal sin, I know. But you really left me no choice!”

Spring Man really hadn’t seen that coming, and could do little else right now than cradle himself and try not to cry.

“You really gave me a run for my money, Spring Man.” She admitted, grabbing him tightly and mimicking his appearance in a few short seconds. The new Spring Man looked over his body and prodded at his new, muscular chest. “I’m sorry it had to end up this way.” With a flick of his new, spring-like hairdo, he began to head back to the entrance had came in from.

“It’s been a really busy night... I think I need a rest.”

“W-Wait...!” Spring Man pleaded, trying to at least kneel a bit through the aching.

His duplicate turned around, with a questioning look on his face.

He glared at him. “...What’s your name?”

A smirk appeared on his face shortly before it became obscured by steam. The young woman retained that same smirk, looking him dead in the eyes. “ _Mimicutie._ ”


	6. Collection Conference

“So... _Then_ she got in the car?” Ribbon Girl attempted to continue.

“No no, she just left on foot.” Kid Cobra corrected.

“...So she had _already_ run you over at this point?”

“Huh? Nah, that was my buddy Hiss-torian. He got me _good,_ man.” Kid Cobra laughed, despite the immense pain in his ARMS, which were tightly bound in casts.

Ribbon Girl sighed. “Coyle’s gonna _love_ this one...”

“I sent her the stream highlights after that whole copy-girl thing. I was _super_ close to having her, man! If I’d known we had forty thou’ viewers watchin’ in I’d probably have fought harder.”

Min Min sat on the other end of the room in a small chair for visitors with a laptop on her lap, chewing her lip as she reviewed the fight footage. “She swamped you, dude. Gotta say - I love that jump she did at the start. Latched right onto ya!”

“Yeah, I thought it was a big mosquito or something at first.” He laughed. “Was like ‘how you gonna bite me through scales, dawg?’ but in honesty it felt like a _biiiig_ one so it probably could have.”

“...Right.” Ribbon Girl sighed again from beside his hospital bed.

“Hey - y’know the worst thing ‘bout getting your ARMS run over?” Kid Cobra chimed.

“The pain?” Ribbon Girl answered.

“The humiliation of doing something so stupid?” Min Min answered too.

“Naw dawg, the fact I gotta find somethin’ _else_ to top it when I get to two millie! Mannnnn, I’m gonna have to jump out a plane without a ‘chute or something.”

They both sighed at his remark, and Min Min continued to review the footage. “Y’know...” She paused the video on a clear shot of the woman. “She’s pretty cute, honestly. She’s like a young Twintelle or something.”

“You think?” Ribbon Girl asked, puzzled.

“What, you don’t think she’s cute?” Min Min returned.

“Oh, no, I think she’s cute! Yeah, she’s really pretty. I just don’t see the Twintelle angle.”

“I think the outfit or something. I feel like it’s something Twintelle would wear.”

“Maybe. Though I’m sure if she were here she’d be pointing out every minor fashion flaw in it.” Ribbon Girl leant back a bit in her chair, a little bored. “I guess I associate Twintelle more with her hair. This girl’s super different in that regard.”

“Mannnn, I wish Twintelle were here.” Kid Cobra sighed. “How rad would it be if she came to see _me_ after hearing ‘bout my cool stunt? That’d be crazy for my stream views, too.”

“Pffft, keep dreaming.” Min Min laughed, stretching a bit. “So I guess, if she went after Kay-Cee, she’s not done with copying ARMS League fighters?”

“I guess not.” Ribbon Girl shrugged. “She must be working up to something else. It’d kinda help if we knew what she took from Coyle but...”

“Hey, do you think I’m gonna be all healed up by Friday?” Kid Cobra asked, a tinge of surprise worry in his voice as if he just remembered something.

Ribbon Girl stared at him. “You ran over your ARMS so... No? Probably not.”

“Awwww _mannnnnnnn!_ ” He groaned. “I wanted to hit up ARMS League World on opening day. That woulda been hella good for a stream.”

“Oh not _this_ again...” Ribbon Girl muttered.

“Duuuuuuuuuude!” Min Min glead brightly. “ _Hell yeah, man!_ I wanna check that place so bad. The Mummy’s Haunted Mansion ride is supposed to be, like, _actually_ scary.”

“I’m all about them _coasters,_ man!” Kid Cobra happily returned. “Oh shoot, or the _Spring Launcher!_ Hells yeah!”

“Do I dare ask what that is...?” Ribbon Girl cautiously added.

“Spring Man’s ride.” He replied.

“...And what is _that_ like?” She repeated, having already figured out that the ride with ‘spring’ in the title was going to be related to Spring Man.

“It’s a drop tower.” Min Min grinned. “You shoot riiiiight up, then drop riiiiight down.”

“Bleh!” Ribbon girl stuck her tongue out, a sour look on her face. “That sounds _awful._ ”

Min Min laughed heartily. “You’re such a babyyyyy!”

“Why can’t we just have _normal_ rides??”

“Because they’re boringggggg!” Min Min yawned.

“Okay, well, what was that place before ARMS League World? That place was fun!”

“Aw, whaaaat??” Kid Cobra jolted his head to one side to look at her. “ _Distant Future Funland??_ That place was _garbage!_ ”

“Yeah, those rides were _so_ boring. None of them had loops, or drops, or _anything._ ”

“Exactly! That place was _great!_ ” Ribbon Girl insisted. “It was all, like, space-themed and metal and had cool lights and stuff...”

“It was boring and got shut down because - get this - _it was boring._ ” Min Min sighed. “If you had told me a couple years back that that dump was gonna get shut down and replaced with an _ARMS League-based theme park with ACTUAL rides_ _based on_ \- I repeat!! - _US,_ I wouldn’t have believed you.” She took a big gulp from the bottle of Helix Juice she had beside her. “We’re in the good timeline, hun.”

Ribbon Girl pouted. “Well we’re still not going there.”

“There are slow rides for _you_ if you want!” Min Min insisted.

“Yeah, Lola’s Sweet Street and Mechanica’s Choo Choo are both pretty tame.” Kid Cobra continued. “Misango’s Nature Safari ain’t half bad either if you wanna pet some deer, and you’d prob be fine with Buster Lagoon.”

“And Buster Lagoon is...?”

“Log flume.”

“Yick!” Ribbon Girl shook her head. “There’s no way that water is sanitary.”

Min Min gave a great big sigh. “What’s Helix got again?”

“Bungee jumping.” Kid Cobra shrugged. “Kinda weak, honestly. Coulda come up with something more fun than that.”

“That’s a no from me.” Ribbon Girl insisted. “How about Ninjara?”

“Ninja Swing. It’s a swing ride.”

“Like those pirate ship ones?”

“Yup.”

“Pass.”

Min Min looked to Kid Cobra, as if to say ‘ _yeahhhh, this is what I have to deal with’_ and he returned a very thoughtful look. “I mean hey, Min...” He began. “Just don’t tell her ‘bout _Coyle’s_ ride.” Min Min snorted.

Ribbon Girl glared between the both of them. “ _Why?_ What’s Coyle’s ride like...?”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Good god, no, that’s _horrific._ ” Coyle gasped, shaking her head back and forth.

Mechanica approached the booth that she and Spring Man were sat in. “Sorry I’m late. No further news from the Lab, but Helix doesn’t seem distressed at all. She must have just grabbed him and left, I doubt she roughed him up much.”

“Darling, have you _seen_ the ride they have for me at ARMS League World?” Coyle sighed. “Show us again, Spring.”

Spring Man, munching on a hearty bite of pizza, extended his phone forward again and showed them a video of the ride - it was a contraption you’d strap yourself into alongside others that would then dangle you right over the edge of an incredible _900 foot drop_ and start to spin rapidly. The chairs would then rotate to an angle of about 70 degrees or so, causing its inhabitants to be looking _straight down_ at the park below. The mechanical arm that held all this in place would then being to raise and drop, giving you a falling sensation.

“I hate it.” Coyle stared blankly. “It’s just _too much._ ”

“Yeahhhhhhhhh.” Mechanica mumbled as she watched in awe. “I think that’s even a bit too much for _me_.”

“Nah, it’s harmless.” Spring Man pulled his phone back. “These things are built real well, I doubt there’s any real risk.”

“How you can still eat after watching that I just don’t know.” Coyle sighed as Spring Man took another big bite of his pizza. “Still, I guess it’s nice they gave me something imposing as a ride. It’s better than Mechanica’s Choo Choo.” Mechanica pouted angrily at the remark.

“Kinda shucks, tho-” Spring Man mumbled through his full mouth, before swallowing what he had. “-That they didn’t put your name in the title. S’just called ‘The Scientific Error’. Like that’s cool, but they kinda robbed ya there. At least the Spring Launcher has ‘Spring’ in it.”

“Ah well.” Coyle shrugged. “Water under the bridge. Or... Sticky-river... Whatever Lola says. We should probably fill Mechanica in on last night.”

Spring Man nodded as he offered a slice of pizza to Mechanica, who gracefully accepted it.

“Our friend Spring Man here has been a _very_ good boy. You’ve seen the Kid Cobra footage, which gives us a good look at our mystery woman, but Spring Man here has gotten us something better!”

“Did you manage to fight her off?” Mechanica asked, covering her mouth as she chewed.

“Nah, she got me in the end. I put up a real fight, though!” He smiled brightly.

“He did his best and certainly held out better than Cobra, but more importantly, Spring Man actually thought to ask for her _name._ ”

“Ohhh?”

“Apparently we’re dealing with a young woman who calls herself ‘Mimicutie’. Clearly a portmanteau of ‘Mimic’ and ‘Cutie’, which at least makes _half_ sense - she is mimicking people, after all.”

Spring Man raised his eyebrow. “You don’t think she’s cute?”

Coyle shrugged her shoulders. “I feel like she’s lacking a little flair, but that’s beside the point - _she’s been thieving from us._ Stealing ARMS Lab equipment, stealing appearances... I’d say that sours my view of her a fair bit.”

“So her name is _Mimicutie_ , then?” Mechanica reiterated.

“Mm.” Coyle sipped her coffee. “Or that’s her nickname, at least. Or _fighting alias?_ Part of me wonders if she’s trying to present herself as a new ARMS League fighter or something. It’d explain that odd pendant around her neck. We all have our own insignias on our outfits somewhere, after all.”

“I dunno...” Spring Man shrugged. “She didn’t talk too highly of the ARMS League when she brought ‘em up. Said we were all too ‘loud’ and ‘in-your-face’. Is that how you’d speak of an organization you wanted to join?”

“I wouldn’t think so, no.” Coyle sighed. “I can’t really piece this all together so well. Those first string of copies lined her up to steal from the ARMS Lab, sure, but now she’s _still_ going after League fighters. But why?”

“She did say Cobra was ‘next on (her) list’. Maybe she’s just collecting us?”

“Sure. But _why?_ That’s an awful lot of work just for some new faces to switch between. And it doesn’t explain why she’d steal from the Lab either.” Another long, drawn-out sigh. “Maybe she needs all our faces for _something_. Some sort of facial recognition database? Maybe scans of all of our faces are needed to unlock some sort of, like, bomb or something.”

“...Is that a valid possibility?” Spring Man worried.

“Not that I know of, no. The ARMS League simply wouldn’t be needed for anything like that - I mean, no one’s come and scanned our faces to setup anything before, so I don’t see how anything like that could be possible.” She picked up her coffee mug again. “Honestly? I’m kinda lost here.”

“I think we need to find out more about her as a person.” Mechanica added. “Maybe if we know her history we can figure out what she’s doing?”

Spring Man raised a finger. “Have you looked into her ARMS...? I mean, we all get ours from stuff we’re close to or stuff with meaning to us. Why’s she got mirror ARMS?”

Coyle bit her lip. “Maybe she’s vain? That’d explain why she undisguised herself for the vault’s cameras and when she came to see you and Kid Cobra. It’d also explain that whole ‘cutie’ part of her name. But I’m not really banking on that - she clearly doesn’t put enough effort into her looks to warrant that assumption.”

“Sometime less is more, y’know.” Spring Man laughed, taking the last slice of pizza. “Thanks again for all this, Coyle. It was quite the surprise!”

“Ah, well, you did good. So few ARMS fighters ever seem to _try_ when I needs them to, so calling me up with her _name?_ Good on you, Spring.” She downed the last of her coffee. “Funny in a way, seeing as I’ve always treated Springtron as the _superior_ Spring, yet the stupid thing failed me in the vault. I guess I should go back to the drawing board again.”

“Orrrr you could _not_ make a robot version of me...?” Spring Man hoped.

“...Like I said - _back to the drawing board_.”


	7. Reflections IV

Twintelle stepped out of the shower, steam rising all around her, as she hummed a heartfelt tune she had heard in a cheesy romance movie she had watched earlier that evening. It was nice to just  _ relax _ sometimes - a nice hot shower, some aromatic candles, a soft and warmed towel to come out to...

She draped herself in the fine silk dressing gown she had picked up the past weekend at a rather high-end store and made her way back into the penthouse’s living quarters. This whole place was a little too spacious for just her, admittedly, but the peace and quiet was undeniably relaxing. No one to bother her. No one to dress up for. She could afford to just be herself, rather than putting on a persona.

At least, that was how it  _ usually  _ was.

A rather generic knock came to her door. Very generic, actually - three perfect thumps, as if each movement of the wrist was specifically programmed in a certain way. In other words, her visitor was almost certainly mechanical.

With a deep sigh, Twintelle made her way to the door and opened it, to be met face-to-face with a familiar policebot.

“Hello citizen.”

Twintelle rolled her eyes. “Let me guess - Coyle sent you. So you could look after me, since incidents involving this ‘Mimicutie’ woman and other fighters have been becoming commonplace?

“...Affirmative.” BYTE confirmed without more deliberation. 

“Fine, whatever, come in then.” Twintelle sighed, making way for him.

The policebot shut the door behind him as he watched Twintelle make her way over to a small minibar in the corner of the room, where she began to prepare a drink for herself.

“So.” Twintelle began. “Where’s BARQ today?”

“BARQ has other objectives to attend to tonight.” BYTE replied. “I am to patrol alone.”

“Mm. Sure.” She turned around and leant against the table she had just been working on, with her drink now in hand. “And you say Coyle sent you here?”

“Affirmative.”

“Despite the fact that Coyle has no jurisdiction over you? Shouldn’t you say that Coyle  _ requested _ I be protected or whatever, and that request was granted by the police commissioner?”

BYTE paused for a moment. “...That is correct. That is the situation as I understand it.”

Twintelle rolled her eyes. “I really did think you’d be better at this.”

“I do not understand your statement.”

“Oh, you can drop the act already.” She glared. “You really weren’t good at it from the start. BYTE would have said ‘good evening’, not ‘hello’.”

BYTE, from where he stood, engulfed himself in smoke and returned to form that had addressed herself the night before as  _ Mimicutie. _ “Robots are hard to do.” She shrugged as the steam dispersed. “They’re a little too  _ predictable _ to copy.”

“I’m surprised you even  _ can _ copy a robot.” Twintelle admitted, putting her glass to her lips.

“Robots have reflections too!” Mimicutie smiled. “So...”

Twintelle didn’t rush her enjoyment of her drink, enjoying the sip fully before putting it aside on the minibar behind her. “So at this point you have  _ how many _ faces, exactly?”

“Of you and your friends?” Her head cocked to one side. “About seven, I think. I’m halfway there.”

“Right.” She sighed. “And, from what I heard, you had to actually fight Spring Man to get his?”

“Yes.” She inhaled deeply. “I take it you’re asking for a fight too?”

“Oh, no no no, you misunderstand...” She picked up the glass again and brought it back to her lips. “ _ Quite the opposite. _ ”

Mimicutie raised an eyebrow as she awaited Twintelle to finish taking another long, drawn-out sip.

“See, here’s the thing... I’m really not interested in getting all banged up right now, or having my penthouse torn asunder by a pointless squabble. You want to do your little mimicry? Just make it quick and clean.”

...Was this some sort of trick? Did she have a secret weapon she’d pull out at the last second, getting an unexpected first strike? But she doesn’t even have her mask on... Hm. “...Alright.” Mimicutie cocked a smile. “It’ll just take a second and then I’ll be on my way.”

She took a step forward but stopped when Twintelle put up two fingers, as if beckoning a pause. “Am I right in thinking your copying process, or whatever, mirrors you to exactly how the person looks at the moment you copied them...? Because I’m not sure how much use to you I am in my  _ dressing gown. _ And personally I’d  _ rather  _ you didn’t copy me like this either.”

Mimicutie opened her mouth as if to reply, but nothing really came out.

“...Shall I get dressed, then?” Twintelle sighed, walking over to the nearby corner of the room, where a fancily carved panel screen stood before a series of clothes racks.

“I-If you could just... Put on your regular League gear - including your mask, of course - that’d be... Great...” Mimicutie mumbled, stepping aside and waiting. It felt odd to have someone so  _ cooperative _ in a moment like this. Surely this was just the lead-up to a sudden attack, right? It  _ must _ be.

“So...” Twintelle began, from behind the screen as she changed. “What exactly are you collecting the faces of ARMS fighters for?”

Mimicutie laughed slightly. “It wouldn’t be right to just  _ tell  _ you. I’m pretty sure you’d update Coyle and her little investigation team right away, after all...”

“I would, yes.” The gown she had been wearing flopped up over the screen, making Mimicutie blush a little. “I’ll be telling them you stopped by tonight, of course. Though I’ll likely tell them I put up more of a fight than I did.”

“That’s fair.”

“So you’re aware of the Scooby Doo crew, then?”

Mimicutie paused. “Uhh... Yeah, I guess? I never watched it much. I think Shaggy was my favourite. I often found myself siding with the villains, though. They’re only ever dressing up to-”

A very audible sigh came from behind the screen. “I was referring to Coyle’s investigation team, genius. Though, for the record, Daphne was the best.”

“ _ Ohhh, right! _ ” Mimicutie cringed, embarrassed. “Uhhh, y-yeah, I figured they’d start grouping together to try and ‘stop’ me. She’s pretty predictable, Coyle.”

“I suppose she is. She can still be quite the handful, though. Are you sure you’re prepared to take her on?”

Mimicutie shrugged, despite not being in Twintelle’s line of sight. “I have my plans and preparations. That’s all I can count on.”

“Mm.” Twintelle seemed to understand, before coming out from behind the screen, fully clothed in her recognisable outfit.

“A-Ah!” Mimicutie smiled. “Shall we, then...?”

Twintelle glared. “Be  _ patient.  _ I still have to put my makeup on - it takes time to look good.” She walked slowly over to the nearby vanity mirror and began to rummage through the assorted makeup supplies there.

“Ah, right. Sorry.” Once again, Mimicutie just awkwardly stood to one side and waited. “Never really experimented much with makeup, so...” She was still fairly sure Twintelle was hiding something - maybe she had tripped some silent alarm and was now just biding her time until others showed up to help her? They’re up on the highest story of this apartment complex, though. The only way to safely escape would be through the only exit of the room... This isn’t a great situation to be in, if backup  _ was _ on the way.

“So...” Twintelle mumbled as she began to powder her face, cutting Mimicutie’s mind straight back to the present for a moment. “What exactly  _ is _ your end goal here...?”

Mimicutie smiled. “That’s just a fancy way of wording the same question again. You’re trying to press me for information, aren’t you?”

“I suppose.” Twintelle shrugged. “It’d save me an earache from Coyle when I call her later. But in all honesty? I don’t care what you intend to do.” She sighed again, softly. “Of course, I do wish you’d keep me out of it for the  _ most _ part, but in the big picture?” Another shrug. “I’m sure you have your reasons.”

Mimicutie paused for a moment, having not expected such an understanding response from Twintelle. She looked rather solemnly at her. “I do.”

“Mm.” Twintelle looked at herself in the mirror. “People don’t do things without a reason to. You clearly have a motive of some sort - one strong enough to warrant all of this as a means to your end. The rest of us may view it - whatever  _ it _ is - as weak, or pointless, or childish, but I doubt you’d be here right now if it didn’t mean a whole lot to you.” She flicked her eyes to the corner of her head, to look at Mimicutie directly, rather than in the mirror. “And I’m sorry for that. I don’t know what drives you, but I hope you feel it’s worth it when this is all said and done. Finding out it wasn’t, well... That’d certainly _ sting. _ ”

Her eyes were a touch watery now, though thankfully that was hard to notice in the white voids they appeared as. Twintelle, oddly enough, seemed to  _ understand. _ At least to some degree. Better than anyone else certainly would. It was a nice change, and perhaps if the other ARMS fighters had reacted this way... Well, maybe none of this would have been needed to begin with. Mimicutie was, for the first time in a  _ while... _ Getting cold feet.

Twintelle put her makeup aside and got to her feet, picking up the mask hanging beside the vanity as she did so. “Breaking into the ARMS Lab, stealing equipment, framing others for it... Well, we’ve all been there, haven’t we?” She smiled warmly. “They’ll vilify you for it. And quite rightly, too. But I really do hope it’s all worth it, in the end. I hope you find what you’re looking for.” She placed her hand lightly on Mimicutie’s chin and looked into her shining eyes, solemnly. “There’s a lot of sadness behind those eyes.”

Mimicutie looked away, giving a small sniffle, and trying not to look emotional. “I-I have work to do...”

Twintelle gave a small, sad smile, and then folded her arms. “Well, I’m ready when you are. Quick and clean, understand?”

Mimicutie nodded and grabbed her gently by her shoulders, raising her slightly as the fog began to appear between them. A small part of her was concerned, still, that this all may be suddenly interrupted - but Twintelle stood true to her word, and by the time her feet reached the floor again she was looking at her perfect duplicate.

“Hm.” Twintelle pouted. “I could have done a  _ touch _ better on the foundation, but oh well. I do still seem rather striking, I must say. Just don’t let anyone get any close-up shots.”

Mimicutie, now in Twintelle form, ran her eyes around the room a bit as she got used to her new body. “This... Feels...  _ Weird. _ ”

Twintelle glared. “If this is an ass joke, I-”

“No no, the hair ARMS!” Mimicutie interrupted. “I have ARMS but I also have...  _ Arms. _ At the same time? And my ARMS are up  _ here _ ...” She twirled her new hair-ARMS around while keeping her arms stationary.

“Weren’t you a robot just a moment ago?” Twintelle smirked.

“Yeah and that was weird too, don’t get me wrong!” She insisted. “Helix is probably the strangest to switch to, though. It’s weird not having bones.” The fog engulfed once again and she was suddenly back to the young woman she was before. She cleared her throat. “Thank you for your cooperation, a-and have a nice night.”

Mimicutie turned to walk away, but something in Twintelle needed to stop her. “Mimi...” The young woman turned around, puzzled. “...You aren’t to tell Coyle that you received this from  _ me, _ understand?” She turned and rummaged through some of the boxes on her vanity, before removing something small and silver, and passing it to Mimicutie. “Whatever you’re planning to do? Might as well look good doing it. It may be a little Coyle-like but I figure that colour suits you best.”

She took what Twintelle had handed her an examined it. Lipstick, huh? She’s never really worn lipstick before, but... Well, it was a pretty thoughtful gesture. She looked back up at Twintelle, and for a second gave a genuine smile that wasn’t tinged with spite. “Th-Thank you. Y’know for, uh... Being nice to me.”

Twintelle shrugged. “Good luck out there, kid.”

And with that, Mimicutie walked out of the penthouse, into the elevator, and disappeared back into the night. The thought may have occurred to her briefly that this lipstick could somehow be bugged with a tracking device from Coyle or something, but throughout her interactions with Twintelle, nothing really gave her reason to believe that. Upon inspection it  _ did _ seem to be an ordinary tube of purple lipstick, too.

But now, after all of this, something else weighed on her mind. Was what she was planning  _ really _ going to be worth it, in the end? It was a thought she  _ hated _ to consider, because deep down she kinda knew it wouldn’t be. She knew it wouldn’t work in the long-term - it’d be  _ her _ who’d be remembered badly for it. Doesn’t that defeat the point?

Bah! No use thinking about it, right? It’s too late to turn back now.

They’ll pay for what they did.


	8. Meet & Greet

“I know... Okay,  _ I know... _ It’s fiiine, I’ll be fiiiiine! ...She’ll be with me the  _ whole  _ time, it’s perfectly safe... No, I-... I know...”

Min Min drummed her fingers on the steering wheel as she waited for Ribbon Girl’s overly long call to end. Long drives were usually easier when they had each other to talk to - but with Ribbon Girl stuck on the phone, Min Min was left with little else to do but keep the car pointed straight.

“Okay... Okay...  _ Yes... _ Okay... Over & out.” Ribbon Girl hung up and sighed.

“Did she make you say ‘over & out’ or did you choose to say that?” Min Min smirked.

Ribbon Girl shrugged. “I thought it was appropriate, I guess.”

“So... What’s Coyle think, then?”

She laughed a little, if only out of exhaustion. “She is  _ not _ happy with us going to the meet & greet. ‘Any of your fans could be Mimi in disguise!’ blah blah blahhhhh...”

“Yeahhh, figured as much.” Min Min shrugged.

“I’m not gonna cancel just ‘cause we’re still on Mimi’s ‘list’. If we stick together we’re fine, right?”

“Right! I’ve got your back, you’ve got mine. And then it’ll be two against one!”

Ribbon Girl smiled. “ _ Exactly. _ Coyle’s just a little overprotective, I guess.”

“Comes with being the champ, hun. All these other face snatchings coulda just been a distraction - she may only needs  _ yourssss! _ ” Min Min wobbled her voice, like a ‘spooky’ ghost in a cartoon.

“And if that were the case...” Ribbon Girl sighed. “...She’d have just come and got me  _ first,  _ before we knew she even existed. Does Coyle really not see the logic in that? Blehhh.”

“She say anythin’ else in that call? Or was she just repeating the same stuff over and over and over and over... and over... and overrrrr...”

“Mostly just repeating stuff. But apparently Twintelle got nabbed last night.”

“Oh damn, really? Talk about a cat fight. Did Coyle give her a good whine about not being ‘careful’ enough?”

“Well, apparently she had  _ some _ good info to share, so I guess Coyle went easy on her. Looks like Mimi turned up as  _ BYTE. _ ”

“Whaaat, she can do robots now?”

Ribbon Girl shrugged. “Something about mirrors also working for robots or whatever, I guess. I guess BYTE got nabbed right before Twintelle, then?”

“So why didn’t she mimic Springtron back in the vault? Had good opportunity to do so there.”

“She was probably more preoccupied with stealing  _ whatever it was _ and blowing her cover just to get ‘Tron probably wouldn’t have been worth it.” She sighed deeply. “I dunnoooo... I’m tired of this already. What’s she even gonna  _ do? _ I really can’t see much damage coming from having our faces handy, honestly.”

“Mehhhh...” Min Min groaned. “Part of me  _ does _ still worry she’s gonna take nudey pics of all of us and post ‘em online.”

“Yeah, that explains why she took Helix and BYTE.” Ribbon Girl mumbled.

“Some people are probably into that!” Min Min smiled, before that smile fell. “Actually, some people probably  _ are _ into that.  _ Yikes. _ ”

“She keeps bringing up her ‘collection’ so I really don’t think it’s much more than wanting to complete her face set or whatever. That’s my guess, at least.”

“I prefer to think they’re like the chaos emeralds or something, and collecting ‘em all turns her into Super Mimi or whatever. That’d be cool!” Min Min found a halfway decent parking spot and slipped in.

Ribbon Girl brought out her phone and sent out a tweet telling her fans where she’d be for the next half hour or so. “There we are.” She sighed. “Always best to give them short notice - stops  _ thousands _ from all showing up at once. We’ll give it a few minutes then head over to the spot.

Min Min stretched out a bit on her car seat, giving a little moan in doing so. “Y’think Mimi follows your twitter?”

“Dunno.” Ribbon Girl bit her lip. “Do you think she likes my music...? Hm.”

“I don’t see why she wouldn’t~” Min Min winked. “A grudge ‘gainst ARMS League fighters is one thing, but those jams are on a whole ‘nother level.” Min Min’s phone buzzed briefly and she checked her message. “Ah! Kay-Cee wants to know what time we’ll be at ARMS League World tomorrow~”

“Never o’clock.” Ribbon Girl bluntly replied.

“But-”

Ribbon Girl opened the car door and began to head down to the meeting spot without another word, leaving Min Min to sigh and follow after her. 

 

Within a couple minutes there were a good six or so fans around the two, generally focused on telling Ribbon Girl how much they love their music, asking for autographs, asking for pictures... But Min Min was getting a fair bit of attention, too! And it looked like a handful of them had actually visited her ramen join before.

About a half hour later there was a group of twelve or so people with them - perhaps not a  _ massive  _ turn out, but understandable given the short notice, the location, and the fact it was a weekday. A shorter turn out was hoped for anyway, seeing as things would be  _ much _ more manageable this way.

“Far too chewy, probably like... Four outta ten.” Min Min shrugged.

“What about the one down by the library?” Asked the fan she had been in a conversation with for a  _ while _ now.

“A  _ little _ too salty but it’s bearable. Maybe six outta ten or something.”

He laughed. “You’ve not given  _ any _ of ‘em a higher score than six yet!”

“Uh, yeah?” Min Min smirked. “‘Cause my place is just  _ that _ much better than ‘em all! Mine’s ten outta ten, theirs are all somewhere between ‘gross’ and ‘ _ okay _ ’.”

“Yours is def the best, don’t get me wrong! But, I dunno, maybe I’m just not that picky ‘bout ramen. I tend to just get the instant stuff anyway.”

Min Min recoiled. “Yuck, dude! Don’t get  _ instant! _ Gotta love yourself more than that.”

“It’s not that bad if you know what brand to get!” He insisted. “But that’s just if I’m feeling  _ really _ lazy, I promise. Usually I go to the place by the gym.” He jolted his head toward the end of the street. “They’ve got some good stuff there. Like, it’s cheap, but it’s good.”

Min Min looked wide-eyed at him. “That place is a  _ dump,  _ dude! Like  _ EVERY _ bowl is undercooked as hell!”

“Nah nah nah, that was the  _ old _ place!” He reassured her. “They changed up the management and clearly got better staff in. S’wayyyy better.”

“Oh damn, they changed it?”

“Mm. About a month ago, I think?”

“Shoot, I gotta try that. You hungry?”

His eyes lit up. “For real? Y-Yeah!”

“Like, not as a  _ date _ . Obviously.” Min Min glared.

He laughed. “I figured, don’t worry.”

“Cool! I’ll pay.” She tilted her head over to Ribbon Girl, who was surrounded by adoring fans, and shouted to her. “Yo, Ribs, I’m gonna go try some ramen. I’ll be back!”

Ribbon Girl’s smile dropped quickly. “Woah woah woah woah, wait! You’re just gonna walk off alone??”

“Nah, I’m going with this dude.” She struck a thumb out at him.

“You’re supposed to-” She hushed her voice a bit, not wanting to concern fans about their private going-ons. “ _ How do you know he’s not...? _ ”

Min Min rolled her eyes, turning back to address her fan. “Yo, are you Mimicutie?”

He stared blankly at her, confused. “...I dunno what that is?”

Min Min turned back to Ribbon Girl again. “All in the clear!”

She glared, unamused. This guy didn’t even have ARMS! If Mimicutie  _ did  _ show up - and that’s assuming she wasn’t already him in disguise, having cleverly planted herself in with the other fans - then he wouldn’t even be able to help her!

“Oh come on Ribs, I’ll be fiiiine! It’s one trip down the road, we’re in public, and the chances of you-know-who being here are pretty slim, right?” Her eyes looked pleadingly at Ribbon Girl.

She sighed. It’d be a risky move on Mimi’s part to swipe in on Min Min here and now, on a busy street... In broad daylight... That wasn’t her style, right? She seemed way more into cornering people in the dead of night. “I’m a shout away if you need me, then...” She turned her attention back to her fans and smiled again, immediately getting back into the groove of things, as Min Min and her new friend headed off down the street.

“When’s your next album??” One of them eagerly asked.

She giggled. “I can’t say  _ just _ yet, but I’m always working hard! It’ll be worth it, I promise~”

“What’s Twintelle like in-person??” Another posed.

“Hmmm...” She put a finger to her chin. “She’s a complicated one! But she’s pretty down-to-earth when you get to know her, I think!”

“Has she let you try her tea??”

“No... But I always see her drinking it and I’m  _ really _ curious. It’s gotta be good, right?”

“Are you gonna be at ARMS League World on Friday??”

“Absolutely no chance. I don’t even want to  _ think _ about being on those coast-”

She cut herself off as something in the corner of her eye caught her attention. The fan Min Min had walked off with was suddenly running back - but he had just left with her? Did something happen?? He looked...  _ Distressed. _

 

He ran all the way back to them and put his hands to his knees, panting hard. “M-Min Min j-just... Just got grabbed... B-By some girl??”

Ribbon girl’s eyes sprung wide, just as Min Min made her way back to them too. She looked Ribbon Girl dead in the eyes, scarily serious. “She’s here.”

Not even a split second later, a  _ second _ Min Min came up just behind the other. “Wh-What? What do you mean  _ she’s _ here, you mean  _ you’re _ here!”

The first one turned around suddenly to face the other, an angry expression on her face. “Huh?  _ Cut it out, dude! _ ”

She squinted at her mirror image. “Are you...  _ Pretending to be the real one? _ ”

“I’M NOT  _ PRETENDING! _ ” The first one shouted.

Ribbon Girl stared with a dead look of shock across her face. The fans nearby seemed to be both confused and somewhat amused, unsure of exactly what was going on.

The Min Min on Ribbon Girl’s left - the first one to arrive - turned to address her. “She snuck up on me as we turned the corner. Musta been watching from the rooftops or something...”

“A-Are you crazy?  _ YOU _ SNUCK UP ON  _ ME! _ ” The one on her right corrected.

Ribbon Girl took a deep breath, putting her hands to her head. “O-Okay, stand apart from each other.  _ NOW. _ ” She spoke commandingly, clearly rather stressed.

The one on the left took a slight shimmy to the side as she glared at the other Min Min.

“The  _ real _ Min Min knows stuff the fake one does not. That’s how I’ll tell you apart, so, when I give you-”

“YOUR FAVOURITE PLACE TO BE-” The one on the right started.

“ _ WHEN I GIVE YOU THE SIGNAL. _ ” Ribbon Girl interrupted. “...I want you to both give me something only the  _ real  _ Min Min would know. And I’ll remind you that we’re  _ in public _ so...” She eyed both of them back and forth. Seeing two of her was really messing with her mind. “Ready...?” She pointed to the one on the left. “You first.”

The left-hand Min Min paused, open-mouthed for a moment, unsure what to even say. “...Your first album was  _ originally _ named Blossom Trees before you changed it.”

“That’s no good.” Ribbon Girl glared. “I’ve definitely mentioned that in interviews before.”

Left-Min Min looked annoyed. “What, so I gotta remember what you have and haven’t mentioned in interviews too, now?!”

Ribbon Girl sighed deeply, rather annoyed. She pointed to the right-hand Min Min. “Your turn.”

“Wh-Wha?” Right-Min Min glared. “You’re just gonna accept that answer??  _ Everyone _ knows that!”

“Just say something already!” She groaned. “Gosh,  _ two _ Min Mins is one too many...”

Right-Min Min groaned. “Okay, fine, you...” She puffed up her cheeks. “I dunno, ask me something!”

“ _ Fine _ \- when’s my birthday?”

“July 9th!” She happily answered.

The Left-Min Min looked disgruntled. “Ohhh, sure, nothing you may have mentioned in an interview but something that could be easily found on Wikipedia?  _ Totally fine! _ ”

Ribbon Girl glared at her.

“I’m getting really sick of this faker.” Right-Min Min mumbled.

“ _ Faker? _ You’re the fake Min Min here.” The other glared. “You’re comparing yourself to me? Ha! You’re not even good enough to be my fake.”

“I’LL MAKE YOU EAT THOSE WORDS!” Shouted the other, extending her ARMS.

“No no no no no  _ no! _ ” Ribbon Girl insisted, putting her ARMS out between the two. “We are  _ not _ starting a fight here.” She eyed the surrounding people who were passing by as each of them looked over at the commotion that was unfolding. The nearby fans seemed equally uneasy now.

“But  _ I _ know she’s the fake one!” The right-hand Min Min insisted.

“Seriously?? Quit making me out to be so dumb!” The other grunted.

“I’m not- H-Hey!” The other glared.

Ribbon Girl slowly retracted her ARMS and took a deep breath. “ _ Next question _ . This one’s for  _ you _ again.” She motioned to the one on her left. “I’m gonna be a jerk about it, so you better answer in detail.”

“Lay it on me!” She smirked.

“ _ Exactly _ how did we meet?”

“Ha, that’s easy!” She grinned.

“You’ve  _ definitely _ mentioned that in inter-” The other began.

Ribbon Girl struck a finger out to her as if to shush her. “Let her answer.”

“This is really entertaining.” One fan, who still seemed to be enjoying this, nudged to another, who wasn’t.

“Okay, so...” Left-Min Min began, a confident smile on her face. “We met in the ring on your first day at the League. It was a close match, but I beat you in the end.”

“That’s all been said before in-”

“And then...” She approached Ribbon Girl slowly, cutting her off. “When we met back behind stage, I had this big goofy smile on my face. And I was super excited to meet you...”

The ends of Ribbon Girl’s mouth started to curve into a soft smile.

“And I remember the first thing I said to you was-”

Without warning, the Min Min who had just been speaking suddenly grabbed onto Ribbon Girl tightly and dragged her forward. The fans gasped and stepped back as fog started to cloud all around the two.

Reacting quickly, however, the other Min Min lunged forward and grabbed her duplicate by the shoulders. She pulled back and ripped her off of Ribbon Girl, throwing her straight to the floor behind them.

Ribbon Girl dropped to her knees and gasped. A fan approached her to check if she was okay, and they all watched as the mist-spewing body on the floor seemed to writher around.

“D-Damn it!” Ribbon Girl mumbled between breaths. “I let my guard d-” She paused. “Wh-What is she doing...?” 

Min Min, her ARMS up and ready for a fight, squinted at her assailant. Behind the smoke she seemed to be flickering uncontrollably between being Min Min, being Ribbon Girl, and being her natural un-disguised self.

After a short moment, the fog cleared away and Mimicutie panted  _ heavily _ . “A-Ahhh.. Th-That was a risky grab, I-I should have waited longer...” She shook her head rapidly, clearing her mind, and then hopped to her feet and looked back at the crowd ahead of her. “Hm...?”

“That’s...  _ Weird. _ ” Min Min mumbled, ahead of the others in a protective stance.

Mimicutie looked down at herself. “Ah... I didn’t quite get the colours copied.” Her body perfectly resembled Ribbon Girl’s, but the deep pinks and dark blues of her outfit were instead greens and oranges. “I guess I’m still drawing from Min Min’s reflection in some of these places... Oh?” She ran her fingers along the dangly ribbon coming from her head. “But where did  _ this _ colour come from? Are you  _ naturally  _ brunette? I kinda like it!”

“Wh-What is going on...?” One of the fans asked. They all seemed to be having less fun now - there was clearly something going on here that just wasn’t right.

“ _ You need to get the hell outta here. _ ” Min Min glared at Mimicutie, ready to strike.

“N-No, wait!” Ribbon Girl yelped, getting to her feet and coming up beside Min Min. “L-Listen, we don’t  _ want _ to fight you! Can’t we talk this all out...?”

The alternate Ribbon Girl smiled softly. “That’s sweet, but I think it’s a little late for that. I’ve already lost too much.”

“L-Lost?” Ribbon Girl frowned. “What did you lose? A-Are you sure we can’t help?”

“Too much talk.” Mimicutie shrugged, extending the ARMS of her abnormally coloured Ribbon Girl body slowly.

“Two against one, punk.” Min Min glared. “You  _ sure _ about this?”

“Hm.” Mimicutie looked her in the eye. “Well,  _ I have what I came for _ . It’s a little off colour, but oh well, it’ll do...”

With that, the alternate Ribbon Girl retracted her ARMS quickly and leapt away in an instant. Min Min and the real Ribbon Girl immediately began to follow, regrettably leaving their fans behind, as they did their best to keep on Mimicutie’s tail.

She peered over her shoulder and, noticing the two coming after her, began to pick up the pace. She used her new found air-jumping abilities to hop up and onto one of the nearby buildings, which she knew the real Ribbon Girl would easily repeat. But pulling Min Min up with her after each leap? That’d surely delay her a bit!

Mimicutie continued over the building tops, ascending more and more, until she reached the end of the street. There were no nearby buildings left, and it was a loooong way down. A drop she could manage, should she use an ability she had taken, but... Hm.  _ Was _ this mis-coloured form good enough? Ribbon Girl was the  _ champion, _ after all. There should be no one question it’s her.

 

“End of the line, Mimi!” Min Min grumbled as the two caught up behind her.

She turned around on a dime, smiling at them both. “You’re persistent. I’m sure Coyle will be happy to hear about that!”

“How did you know we were here...?” Ribbon Girl muttered, worried.

“Hm?” She cocked her head to one side, causing her ribbon ponytail to dangle in the air. “I follow you on twitter, dummy! I just happened to be in the area, too. It was awfully convenient.”

Min Min grumbled. “It’s still two against one, y’know. You wanna make this easy for us?”

She grinned. “Nope!”

“We can still  _ talk _ about this, Mimi!” Ribbon Girl pleaded.

“Not happening.” She insisted again.

With a sigh, Ribbon Girl extended her ARMS. “Then I really don’t think this is a fight you can win...”

Mimicutie cocked a small smile, feeling rather excited. “Oh, I agree! Not on my own, certainly.” She laughed a little to herself. “Lucky for me, one of  _ you _ will be on  _ my _ side...”

The two looked quite confused, but took an uneasy step back as they watched her put an ARM into the air. It was a gesture they recognised.

“And to think I almost past it up! It really was better to be safe than sorry, after all. But, now, which of you do I pick...?”

A roar echoed throughout the nearby streets, and suddenly Mimicutie, with her ARM still high in the air, tilted her wrist forward and pointed a finger toward the real Ribbon Girl.

Out of nowhere, a shining golden Hedlok clamped down on Ribbon Girl’s shoulders. She screamed, but it came out distorted through the metallic filter.

“R-RIBS!” Min Min yelped.

“I’ll leave you two to have some fun. It’s been a pleasure!” She began to fog up again, until Twintelle soon took her place. She flipped backwards, off the building, and began to float slowly down to the ground below.

 

Min Min stared at the massive golden skull on Ribbon Girl’s shoulders as its eyes turned red and its ARMS began to extend. “ _ Shit! _ ” She grunted. “Oh, god, I’m sorry Ribs!” She put her ARMS up again and took a swing, trying to fight the thing off of her.

Ribbon Girl, now under Hedlok’s control, avoided pretty much every punch she swung with great ease. The four ARMS affixed to Hedlok’s shell struck at Min Min with a ferocity, each hitting one-after-the-other in rapid succession every time she failed to avoid the first.

She panted heavily, already out of breath. This was a fight she  _ knew _ she couldn’t win - it had taken  _ three _ of them to fight off the silver Hedlok that had taken over Brass back during Ribbon Girl’s rise to championship. And even then, it only really came off after Mechanica disabled it.

She charged up her dragon ARM. It was her greatest asset right now, for sure - ordinary ramen just wouldn’t cut it. But she had to exert herself to keep the scales, and that wasn’t something she could do  _ forever. _ She’d most likely exhaust her dragon ARM back into ramen before she could get that damn thing off of Ribbon Girl...

Bah! What use was thinking like this doing? If fighting Hedlok off was the only way to free the woman she loved, she’d keep her dragon ARM charged through sheer will power alone until the sun burnt out!  _ You’re going down, Hedlok. _

Ribbon Girl reeled back and her shining golden cage launched a thick fireball toward Min Min. Through some stroke of luck, she reacted quickly enough to throw herself flat to the rooftop she was standing on, just barely avoiding it but harshly feeling the burn pass over her as it shot into the distance and, thankfully, exploded in the sky where it didn’t seem to harm anyone.

Min Min, stared over the end of the building where she lay. Yikes! - That’s a  _ loooong _ way down, and unlike her girlfriend she had no way of slowing her fall or-

“Huh?” Min Min squinted. Her eyes widened, and she shouted down to someone passing by down below. “YO, DUDE!”

Hearing her voice, the man below turned and squinted back up at her. “...Min Min?”

She grinned, thankful she hadn’t mistaken a stranger. “Ninjara!” She called out with a smile. “You gotta help me up here!”

Hedlok’s roar echoed through the street and a look of panic struck his face. “O-Oh god, hold on, I’ll be right up!”

Min Min let out a sigh of relief, then rolled aside and flipped back up to her feet. The shining gold of Hedlok’s shell gleamed a light in her eye.  _ Okay _ . She thought.  _ Two people... The odds are certainly better now. _

Of course, she couldn’t help but consider that the Ninjara she had just called to may, in fact, be Mimicutie. But she hadn’t taken Ninjara’s face, right? Well they’d established already that she can’t make a mask appear out of nowhere, and the one from below was maskless when he looked up. If he starts fighting  _ without _ a mask, well-

“I’m here!” Ninjara poofed in out of nowhere, his ARMS extended and a striking blue mask adorning his face.

_ Ah, yes!! _ Min Min grinned.  _ In the clear! _ She brought her attention back to the golden Hedlok. “Mimi’s gone and locked Ribs under...  _ That. _ ”

Ninjara seemed a little unease. “Mimi’s the copycat, right? And where is  _ she _ at?”

“I dunno.” Min Min dived under some ARMS being sent her way and struck the side of Hedlok’s shell with a firm punch. “I think she ran off.”

Ninjara poofed behind Hedlok and struck him with two solid hits, before poofing right back to where he had been before, before Hedlok could turn around and get back at him. He threw another punch, colliding hard with Ribbon Girl’s hip and making her wobble a bit.

“D-Dude!” Min Min grunted. “Can you try to  _ not _ aim for Ribs? There’s a big golden target on her head, man!”

“I’m just concerned with beating this stupid thing!” He glared briefly.

The two jumped away from each other as another fireball shot past. Min Min checked over her shoulder, once again, to make sure it had dispersed in the air and not damaged a building or hurt a person. Those fireballs were  _ strong, _ and a halfway decent strike to a supporting wall... Well, it could make all this into a much greater problem than it already was.

“Distract it!” Ninjara smirked. “I’m gonna go for a grab!”

“Alright.” Min Min nodded, trying to calm herself and get back into her usual fighting mindset. Her breathing steadied and she fell silent, hopping back and forth and striking Hedlok with charged dragon ARM shots - something he clearly didn’t like. His attention focused directly on her as a result, and she had to contend with six ARMS coming her way, but knowing it left Ninjara open for his strike kept her calm.

Ninjara poofed to the side and struck both ARMS forward at lightning speed, the sound of chains soaring forth echoed through the air as they firmly grasped his target. Holding on tightly, Ninjara spun in a circle and gave a hearty throw, sending Min Min out into the distance far, far away as a smirk appeared on his face.

Hedlok watched as Min Min was sent away, and then turned back to Ninjara, a tinge of confusion on his face. “Good work, buddy.” The Ninja giggled, before a blast of hot steam shot up from his neck. Mimicutie, now disguised as Min Min again, clapped her hands. Hedlok’s beaming red eyes faded into dark and a small sound of tumblers unlocking emerged from his shell.

With a quick punch forward, Hedlok fell straight back and Ribbon Girl dropped to her knees, panting viciously.

She ran up to the fallen champion. “H-Hun, are you okay??”

“I-I...” She gasped for air. “Oh my  _ god, _ all my th-thoughts were j-just filled with his  _ f-face! _ H-How long did he have me?? It felt like  _ hours! _ ”

“I-I’ve got you, it’s okay...” She held onto Ribbon Girl tightly in a hug, putting her head on her shoulder.

“D-Did she make me fight you...?” Ribbon Girl’s lip quivered. “Hun, I’m s-so sorry, I-”

Ribbon Girl’s face fell still as a heavy mist began to emerge from the one she was holding so tightly onto. She stared blankly into the distance, an unchanging look of emptiness on her face, understanding her defeat. Mimicutie pulled back a bit and looked at her face-to-face, her now correctly coloured reflection smirking softly. “Sorry, Ribbon Girl.”

Mimicutie let go and got back to her feet, leaving Ribbon Girl slumped over, feeling nothing but disappointment and defeat.

Her duplicate looked off into the distance and struck a now-ribbon hand out, pointing firmly with her finger at a nearby park. “Your girlfriend should be around there somewhere. I  _ did _ aim for a tree to soften the blow.”

Ribbon Girl looked up, solemnly. Mimicutie’s duplication now resembled her  _ perfectly _ . So much for the upper hand.

“No hard feelings.” Mimicutie smirked, fading herself out and into Lola’s form. “I’m sorry I had to drag you into all this. But you  _ are _ the champion, after all. I couldn’t exactly skip out on  _ you. _ ” She clicked her fingers and the deactivated Hedlok shell soared back into the air, off to wherever Mimicutie was keeping him.

She then gave a deep bow - the kind Lola would do after every circus performance or ARMS match - and then walked back toward the edge of the building.

“My list is nearing completion now. Not much longer to go at all.” She peered down at the street blow. Quite a drop indeed. “When this is all over? I’m sorry for what you’ll have to answer for.” She stared blankly, her smile fading. “...But it’s what you all deserve.”

With that, she hopped right off the building top and inflated into a goofy looking ball. She bounced when she hit the floor, and continued to bounce away until she was out of sight.

Ribbon Girl sighed.


	9. Reflections V

Misango took a deep breath, clearing his head. He was sat cross-legged at the foot of the statue bearing the Misangan deity. The pitch black of night chilled the air as the moonlight above seeped through the boards of the structure overhead in glimmering strikes of pale white.

To be at one with your god is no easy feat. It takes decades of spiritual awakening to ascend to such a tranquility that your Earthly ties are severed _ just enough  _ to bring you briefly within the same spiritual realm as your creator. To gaze upon them would be forbidden, of course. No mortal could survive such a thing. No true believer - true  _ vessel _ \- would even dare to consider it. But to hear the voice of your devine entity, though cryptic and foreboding? Well, that was what all Misangan people strived for. That was the inner peace they hoped to achieve.

Misango knew that peace. It was rare for him to actually hear the indistinguishable and ever  _ indescribable _ voice of the Misangan spirit, but he had been graced perhaps more than any other before him. It was his god who directed him to the ARMS League. It was his god that chose him as chief. And it was his god who now, tonight, saw fit to  _ warn him _ .

He opened his eyes. The silhouette of a familiar associate stood in the frame of his sacred ground’s open archway.

“What’s cookin’ good lookin’?” Smiled the bright red lips of the clown ahead of him, illuminated solely in moonlight. “S’awful lonely back at the circus... Thought I’d stop by an’ borrow a cuppa sugar~”

Misango looked calmly upon the face of his friend. “I know you not for what you appear to be.” He spoke commandingly, but with an ease in his tone. “Your trickery will not work here.”

She smiled at him. “Big talk.” A puff of smoke later and she was undisguised. “I don’t mean to interrupt your little prayer session, but I need to borrow your face.”

He stared blankly at her. “You are a child. Young and impressionable. Your past transgressions are the result of a lack of  _ faith. _ A lack of  _ understanding. _ It is a balance.” He inhaled deeply. “Through Misangan learning you find that balance from within.”

Mimicutie rolled her eyes. “You’re trying to convert me? Usually you send people going door-to-door for that kinda stuff. But I guess it’s my fault for walking into a  _ church, _ huh?”

“You are a woman of illusions. The Misangan deity is no illusion. The connection shared between They and the people of Misanga... Brings forth an inner strength. An inner strength capable of seeing through your trickery. Seeing through your spirit. Seeing into your past.” He raised his head high, firmly. “I know now of who you are.”

She raised an eyebrow. “Oh really? Alright, and what is it that your ‘god’ sees?”

He looked at her dead in the whites of her pale, ever-shining eyes. “ _ Foresight _ .”

“...Foresight?” She repeated, puzzled.

“The Misangan spirit speaks not in concise. Their words are specific and chosen with great care. It is  _ our _ duty to find meaning in them. To find truth, as there shall always be.” He got to his feet slowly and struck a finger out firmly at Mimicutie. “For you, the spirit has presented ‘Foresight’.”

Mimicutie looked aside, thinking for a moment, before the ends of her mouth curved ever so slightly. “ _ Ah. _ ” She smiled. “I get it. That’s rather clever, in a roundabout way. I guess it  _ does  _ make sense.” She cocked her head to one side. “But does it make sense to  _ you? _ ”

“It does not.” Misango stared at her. “Though time will reveal to me, as it always had, the meaning of Their words.”

Mimicutie chewed at her lip. “So... Alright, what  _ do _ you know about me, then? Quantifiably. Not from your spirit, but from the grapevine.”

“The champion of our League has informed me of all your prior transgressions. Further information has been supplied each night through the Telling Phone. Starting with your visit to the Master, the Clown, and the Child of Mechanica. And most recently with your battle atop the roofs utilizing the stolen Head.”

“Mm.” Mimicutie breathed deeply. “Well, only four fighters remain, no wonder they’re keeping you all up-to-date.”

“From what is known of you, Mimic... You fight unhonourable.” He broadened his shoulders. “You trickery extends beyond your illusions.”

“That’s right.” She shrugged. “I do what I have to to win. Honor is for League fighters. And I have little respect for them.”

“Honor is  _ commendable. _ It is through honor that we find enlightenment. It is through honor that we understand true betterment. You believe your reasoning to be  _ just? _ You will find  _ proof  _ in honor.”

Mimicutie’s smile fell. She didn’t truly believe any of that garbage, of course, but something inside her felt like it was burning. A want to beat him at his own game. A want to play fair, if only to smash his idea of ‘honor’ into dust. After all - she could get by banking on his inexperience with her as an opponent, right? Besides... She had some rather unique gloves to use. It was hardly your average one-on-one.  “Alright.” She muttered. “You want an ‘honourable’ fight? I’m ready when you are.”

Misango took a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. His small spirit companion appeared out of thin air, glowing golden in the darkness. Then, as the spirit twirled in place, the torches around the temple each lit up one by one.

Mimicutie stepped forward and extended her shining ARMS, the ends of which spun briefly to equip what appeared to be two altered shield-like ARMS, each adorned with a shining surface.

In turn, Misango also extended his ARMS, the braided lengths of bracelet twine ending now in a sharp Skully and a rounded Gusher. He nodded slowly to her.

A fair fight like this...  _ Bleh. _ It’s like she was becoming an ARMS fighter - something she  _ despised _ . But she had already agreed to an honourable fight, so whatever. She nodded too, in response to his.

And just like that? The fight was on! Misango started up by jolting to the left and striking her with the end of his Skully, causing her to stumble a bit. He quickly charged his Gusher and bounced it after her, sending her onto her back in a haze.

She shook her head, feeling a little dizzy. That’d probably be the poison, huh? Ugh. She looked up to the Misangan warrior ahead of her, who had now equipped his partner as a shimmering blue mask. Speed boost, eh?

With a flip, she got right back to her feet and sent her shields out. One had a bright white surface, not unlike her eyes, and the other had a deep black tint to it. She sent the black one further again, causing it to spin forward quickly as a hit.

Misango flipped to the side to avoid it and, instinctively, sent out his Skully again, forgetting for a moment that she had another shield out. She smirked slightly as it whacked against the White Mirror.

His Skull immediately angled back at him, as if sent back from a Clackback, but at a  _ drastically _ faster speed. It struck him through the chest in a split second, before he could even realize his mistake.

He yanked it out from where it has stabbed him - a purple dribble of poison slowly dripping from the gash. His head felt woozy now. She used his own weapon against him, hm? Should have figured, given her mirror motif.

The fight continued. He requipped his blue mask and sped around, dodging shots and trying to aim away from her shields. Mimicutie seemed rather annoyed by the strikes that made it through, and tried to focus more on angling her shields in ways that they’d be easily struck.

One such strike from his Gusher met the White Mirror again, causing it to arc upward and fly back at him  _ quickly. _ It slammed against his face and splattered pink gunk all over his mask. He felt sick again

With his spirit companion thrown off, he decided it was time for a chance of pace - time to focus more on building up a rush. His spirit companion clamped onto his face with a golden tinge and he continued his assault.

Mimicutie smirked once again, starting to prioritize punching with the White Mirror, so the black one could be her primary defence. He soon slipped up and sent his Skully right for it, and it shot right back at him again - though this time at a somewhat slower speed, closer to that of an ordinary Clapback..

It grazed his shoulder, just enough to inflict him with the poi-  _ Huh? _ He flashed yellow, and for a moment found himself unable to move. Long enough for him to be struck by the White Mirror spinning toward him.

How did it  _ stun _ him...? Was that glove of the stun category...? Wait, no, that doesn’t make sense - he wasn’t struck by the Black Mirror directly, he got hit by his  _ Skully. _ Does that mean...?

He glared at her. The Black Mirror inverts the element of the ARM it reflects, hm? So poison: gradual damage over a long period of time, becomes stun: a quick shot of immobilization. Hm. 

Fine - then he’ll just avoid the mirrors at all cost. Simple! Though... Perhaps that’s easier said than done.

He did his best, of course, but he simply couldn’t build a rush well with those mirrors blocking his shots. Every shot he misaimed, or that allowed her to quickly shift her mirror into place for, was a shot against him. And on top of all that she was also sending spinning hits to him too!

Every time he’d be struck, be it with his own gloves or hers, he’d fall back and his spirit buddy would come off. So perhaps a boost in defence would help - if he could tank hits better, he could focus more on aiming his hits. And if those hits were  _ stronger _ when they  _ did _ collide with her... Well, that’d be even better.

Misango equipped the red mask, making him more of a powerhouse, if at the cost of his speed and jumping ability.

“Oh?” Mimicutie raised an eyebrow. “Hm...”

As the fight raged on, it appeared as tho Misango was gaining the upper hand again. Mimi was really getting sick of the, well,  _ sickly _ feeling she got whenever his poison got onto her.  _ Forget honour! _ She thought to herself, about to fade into another fighter. But something stopped her suddenly.

She had just become too predictable, hadn’t she? The White Mirror reflects attacks at a fast speed, and the Black Mirror reflects them back with an inverted element. But what if she brought out...  _ That _ glove?

With a smirk, she slid back a bit and spun her Black Mirror into a third mirror shield. This one lacked the white or black tint the others had, and appeared to be just a regular mirror, aside from the large splintering crack going through it. She sent the Broken Mirror forward and waited, keeping her assault with the white one up.

Misango kept a careful eye on this new glove. The white shot the speed back faster and the black inverted the element, so... What would a  _ broken _ mirror do?

It wasn’t too long until he found out, as his Skully struck it suddenly and came back about as quickly as it had done with the Black Mirror... But when it collided, it  _ exploded _ against him, sending him far back and forcing that spirit mask off of his face.

He groaned, getting back to his feet and quickly requiping it. He bounced forward the Gusher without enough thought, and it too hit the Broken Mirror. When it came back to him, he felt an icy chill coarse through his body as tiny specks of frost coated his skin.  _ Huh?! _ He thought to himself. They were  _ both _ poison gloves, why did one return as an explosive and the other return with ice...??

Mimicutie continued her assault with a smile on her face - that upper hand he had gained was  _ lost, _ and she quite apparently had the lead on him now. It soon became clear exactly what the Broken Mirror was for - it was  _ randomizing _ the element it shot back with. Yikes.

He couldn’t keep up with this. Not effectively, at least. It was just too unpredictable - is a returning strike gonna blow you back in a gust of wind? Set you alight in a burst of flames? Drop your ARMS to the floor with a jolt? Or maybe it’d just blind you, or stun you, or freeze you, or-

Misango was out. He had lost. Despite Mimicutie switching a glove mid-match, he seemed to kneel in honourable defeat.  _ Ouch. _

“You... Are a strong one...” He panted.

She smiled. “I don’t believe in the faith you give your ‘honor’.” She muttered, approaching him slowly. “Is what I’m doing  _ really _ ‘just’? I don’t know!” She picked him up by the shoulders. “ _ I don’t really like to think about it. _ ”

He looked at her, dead in the white void of her eyes. He had lost according to his customs, and as a result, did not make any attempt to fight back against her.

Her smile faded. “All that matters to me now is  _ revenge. _ I’ve lost  _ everything. _ It’s the only thing I have left.” Her grip tightened, and she pulled him in closer, hushing her voice. “And I  _ will _ make them pay.”

A burst of steam transformed her into Misango, and she threw him back hard - colliding him with the statue he had leant over, leaving him fallen on the floor in a huff.

“Three to go.” She spoke in his deep, masculine voice.

He looked up at her, a tinge of anger in his face. “Y-You will  _ not _ win. The spirit of Misanga will be  _ against _ you!”

His duplicate smiled slightly. “You have too much faith in your god.” She flexed her muscles and a small whispy spirit appeared, before fixating onto her new face like a bright blue mask.

Misango watched in horror as the spirit his god entrusted with him betrayed his years of worship and instead latched onto the opposing, godless force. Mimicutie, with her new found speed, dashed off into the darkness and was soon out of sight.

The torches around the area flickered and died, leaving Misango in the dark.


	10. Some Ninja

Min Min pulled into the nearest parking space. “So did she say where to meet her?”

“Nothing specific.” Ribbon GIrl sighed, checking her phone again. “Just at the Ninja College.”

“Ugh.” Min Min rolled her eyes. “Then how the hell are we supposed to find-” She opened the door to get out and heard some disgruntled shouting from nearby. “ _ Ah. _ ”

The two ran over to the source of the shouting - the college’s plaza, where a large statue stood proudly at its center. Before that statue were two people: a very embarrassed looking ninja and a  _ furious _ mad scientist.

“AND BECAUSE OF  _ YOUR _ NEGLIGENCE,  _ YOU  _ WOUND UP GIVING HER THE UPPER HAND. DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT?  _ DO YOU? _ ”

“ _ Yes, already!! _ ” Ninjara cringed. “C’mon, I’m sorry,  _ please _ stop shouting...” The nearby ninja students were all stood in place, eyes firmly on the squabble happening, giving Ninjara an intense feeling of embarrassment.

Ribbon Girl walked up to the two. “Uhhh... Hey?”

Coyle turned to her. Her temple was throbbing beneath her mask. “ _ Ah, _ Ribbon Girl. Tell Ninjara what a  _ failure _ he is!”

“I...” She looked at Ninjara. “Why...?”

She sighed. “Explain your story again, carbon-waste.”

Ninjara looked away, uncomfortable, and sighed. “She snuck up behind me and-”

“She  _ SNUCK _ up  _ BEHIND _ him!” Coyle interrupted, raising her ARMS high into the air and adding emphasis. “He’s  _ SUPPOSED _ to be a  _ NINJA! _ And she  _ SNUCK UP BEHIND HIM! _ ”

“I wasn’t expecting to get jumped out here on the campus!” He insisted.

She glared daggers at him. “I told you to be  _ ON. YOUR. TOES. _ and you  _ still  _ let your guard down??” She sighed breathily. “Some ninja  _ you _ are. I should enroll  _ myself _ here if they’re handing out diplomas that easily.”

Ninjara seemed to take offence to that. “H-Hey, not just  _ anyone _ can be a ninja!”

“Oh yeah? Am I not ninja material?” Coyle glared, before shimmering with an electrical blue aura and turning invisible. “Look! I’m totally hidden.  _ Better hidden than you can manage, apparently. _ ”

“Can we focus, please?” Ribbon Girl sighed.

Coyle appeared again, her ARMS folded, right behind Ninjara. “I was  _ three _ seconds away from giving this nerd a wedgie.” She quietly floated back to where she had been before.

“Okay, so, she grabbed you and then...?” Min Min continued.

“Uhh... She grabbed me from behind and stuck her hand over my mouth, like it was a serious hold that came outta nowhere so I was really caught off guard.”

“I wanna point out that he was apparently  _ alone _ when this happened.” Coyle grumbled. “Probably because he has no friends.”

He glared at her. “I knocked her off eventually but she’d copied me. But I wasn’t about to let her get away, so I slipped my mask on and started a fight before she could skip out.”

“Remember that he’s  _ unmasked _ when he first gets grabbed. That’s all she copied - his unmasked form. At least,  _ at first. _ ”

“Yeahhh... So, uh, I put up a good fight-”

“ _ Doubt it. _ ”

“...But then she was just too tough to beat. She shapeshifted into Kay-Cee, man. I couldn’t get a solid hit on her.”

“...And so Mimi grabbed him  _ again _ .” Coyle sighed deeply. “And as a result? Got a form of him  _ without _ his mask AND one of him  _ with _ his mask.”

“That explains the Ninjara I saw yesterday, then.” Min Min groaned. “I thought we were in the clear when he showed up.  _ Damn. _ ”

“At least this tells us Mimi retains  _ all _ of her copies, and they don’t get overwritten by new ones of the same person. I guess she still has that funky-coloured Ribbon Girl in there too. Though I doubt she’d get much use from it.” She sighed deeply. “So I guess either Mimi hoped you’d accept any help and not think about it, or she’d bank on Ninjara  _ not telling us  _ he was caught. ‘Cause guess what?  _ HE DIDN’T  _ **_FUCKING_ ** _ TELL US. _ ” Coyle heaved with anger.

“Okay, okay, c’mon!!” Ninjara urged her, looking around at the nearby spectators. “I was  _ going _ to I just... Ugh, I dunno!”

“Don’t worry about it...” Ribbon Girl sighed, disappointed.

“See?” Ninjara smiled to Coyle. “Water under the bridge!”

Ribbon Girl glared up at him. “Well I didn’t say  _ that... _ ” She muttered.

“Okay, so, she has the two of us from yesterday and apparently Ninjara too.” Min Min counted on her fingers. “How many of us are even left for her ‘collection’?”

“Myself, Springtron, and...” Coyle bit her lip. “ _ Brass. _ ”

“Okay, well I think the best thing we can do-” Ninjara began.

“Ohhhh, no no no  _ no! _ ” Coyle beamed angrily. “You are  _ not _ a part of this investigation! Go do some homework, carbon-waste. Try not to get snuck up on  _ again _ on your way there.” She struck her finger out toward the college building, commanding him to leave.

Ninjara took one last look at Ribbon Girl and Min Min, then sighed and walked away in the direction she had pointed, his face down in shame.

Coyle let out another deep sigh, floating over to a nearby campus bench and sitting herself down on it. A student who had been sat there, listening to music, took one look at her and hurriedly ran off.

Ribbon Girl took a seat beside her, with Min Min dropping down on her opposite side too. “So... What  _ do _ we do about the remaining fighters?”

She took a deep breath. “I’ll worry about myself. I’ll try to guide Brass  _ from a distance _ to watch his back - which would be better for us both, I think. Some distance between us is always best. He’ll probably be fine anyway, though. She couldn’t beat Spring Man fairly, remember?” She lay her head flat on the palm of her hand with a huff. “And Springtron, well, he’s more expendable than the two of us, I’d say. I’ll have to think about what I want to do with him. And if he gets grabbed, I dunno, I’ll have him self destruct or something.”

“What about Misango?” Min Min posed.

“Taken last night.” Coyle muttered. “Put up a damn good fight, though. I’ll have to buy him lunch. Got some good info on her fighting style non-disguised. Bitch has her own unique gloves, though. That doesn’t make things easier.”

“Coyle...” Ribbon Girl nervously began. “...It’s getting to the point where I think you should  _ really _ consider telling us what she stole from the Lab. I mean, obviously part of that was  _ Hedlok _ but...”

She flicked an eye toward Ribbon Girl, then over to Min Min. “When she called in Hedlok, what exactly did he look like...?”

Min Min raised an eyebrow, then shrugged. “It was the golden one.”

“Ah.” Coyle pouted. “Figured.”

An awkward silence persisted for a moment, until Ribbon Girl nervously broke it. “Coyle...  _ Please, _ we really need to know what she took.”

“It’s a weapon.” She mumbled. “Like Hedlok, just a bit different. It was  _ supposed _ to stay in the vault, unused, forever. I went a little overboard with it, so...” She shut her eyes, tired. “I’d say it’s far too destructive for actual  _ use _ . Even for the user.”

Coyle’s answer did  _ not _ reassure Ribbon Girl. “S-So she has a  _ weapon...? _ Do you think she’s gonna attack some people, or something?”

“I dunno.” Coyle groaned, leaning back against the bench. “I’d understand that as the plan if she had only nabbed the first handful of faces up to Mechanica, but why keep going after getting the weapon out of the ARMS Lab...?”

Ribbon Girl shrugged. “Maybe she wants to frame us all for whatever she’s gonna do? She seems to have a grudge against the League...”

“It doesn’t add up.” Coyle grumbled. “All this work... It seems too much for just some run-of-the-mill terrorist attack. I mean, we could explain it all off pretty easily afterwards, right? Hell, we have footage of her transforming in Lola’s circus, in the vault, from Kid Cobra’s stream...”

“Mm...” Ribbon Girl quietly agreed. None of that really  _ did _ make for a good plan. 

Min Min drummed her fingers on the side of the bench, lost in thought, until a little lightbulb suddenly lit up. “...Oh.  _ OH! _ ” She gasped.

The other two turned to her, confused.

“ _ ARMS League World is opening tomorrow! _ ”

Ribbon Girl sighed. This again, really? “We are  _ not _ going...”

“No no no, hear me out!” Min Min insisted, her mouth agape. “ARMS League World was built on top of Distant Future Funland - what if Mimi was a  _ huge _ fan of that place and got pissed it closed down? She’d blame the League and wanna wreck the place up, which is why she nabbed that weapon!” She hopped to her feet suddenly. “ _ AND _ there was a hall of mirrors slap-bang in the middle of Distant Future Funland, which would explain the mirror ARMS. That’s it!!”

The two of them simply stared at her, unconvinced. Coyle rolled her eyes. “If you’re not going to give  _ serious _ suggestions, I’d prefer you to keep quiet.”

“...Huh? N-No, I am serious!” Min Min insisted.

Coyle glared at her. “You’re telling me you think Mimicutie was a die-hard fan of  _ Distant Future Funland? _ And not only that, but  _ specifically _ the hall of mirrors? The  _ least _ interesting attraction in an already awful amusement park?”

“Uhh...”

“And you think she cares enough about all this to warrant a large-scale attack on the place replacing it? You think ALL of this is due to a  _ theme park shutting down? _ God, what a pathetic motive that’d be.”

Min Min pouted. “It sounded good in my head...”

“Perhaps she could be the daughter of Distant Future Funland’s owner, or something?” Ribbon Girl suggested. “That’d at least give her some more  _ emotional _ tie to the park.”

Coyle glared at her now. “You’re  _ really _ entertaining this idea? Would  _ you _ beat up some new singer if they spoilt your music career?” She turned back to Min Min. “Would  _ you _ destroy a new ramen place if they ran your restaurant out of business?”

The two seemed pretty given up on the idea, suddenly.

“People need  _ actual _ motives to do the things they do. If she cared  _ that much _ about a stupid theme park she’s a bigger loser than Ninjara.” She took a biiiig exhale, trying to calm down a bit after hearing such a  _ stupid _ idea. “Besides, she’d be cutting it quite close if she wanted to nab all our faces before the opening tomorrow. Three in one night, when we’re  _ this _ aware of her? And those three are the merciless robot, the ex-champion, and  _ me? _ That’s not happening.”

Min Min sat back down, a little glum her suggestion was thrown out so effortlessly. “That whole ‘collection’ bit sure is tricky... Maybe she’s not going to do  _ anything _ once she gets us all? But then why take the weapon...?”

“And why collect League fighters if you hold such a grudge against them?” Ribbon Girl sighed. 

Coyle wiped her eyes with the backs of her hands. “Right, well, I think we ought to plan for tomorrow. She wants to duplicate me?”

She hopped to her feet and cracked her neck to one side.

“Let’s see her try.”


	11. Reflections VI

Max Brass took a long, deep look out the large window of his suite. The world of ARMS... What a place! Fifty years on and he’s still finding new things to marvel at.

So a young woman can shapeshift into different people, eh? That’s new. Man, you really think you’ve heard it all when a young lady gets ARMS in her  _ hair, _ and then somethin’ like this comes along. Crazy, crazy world.

He took another swig from the drink in his hand, which had just a moment ago been placed beside his dinner plate, which still lay at the table he ate at just to his right - stained with peppercorn sauce and uneaten veggies. By now the room service really should know not to bother with that part, but hey, the green does add a bit of visual flourish, he supposed.

He shut his eyes. The night view of the city was  _ gorgeous, _ but... Well, he couldn’t help but feel lonely. Perhaps, if he and Coyle had still been together, well, maybe she’d be here with him right now. Though - realistically - there’d be little chance they’d live together in a top-floor penthouse, really. Far too far from her Lab. Gosh... She really did love that lab, huh?

With a final big swig, he finished his drink. The ice cubes clattered around in the glass as he continued to stand there, simply watching over the city.

It was disappointing, admittedly, how every text he’d get from Coyle nowadays was always about some bizarre League happenstance that he should know about. Never anything casual, or thoughtful, or... Well, was it so wrong to hope for the day he’d see an “I miss you”? Sigh.

But hey, if it has to be all about mysterious face-collecting young women with mysterious motives, well, so be it! That’s what he loved about this world, after all. All that craziness just made it that much more fun.

That’s probably what he liked about Coyle, too.

A small dinging noise from the back of the room drew his attention, and he turned to view its source. The elevator had stopped at his floor... Ah. That’d be  _ her, _ then.

The doors opened and a familiar policebot stepped out. Once more, without his canine companion.

“You can drop the-” 

His beckoning proved unneeded, evidently, as she began to fade back into her usual self the second she stepped forward. She clearly wasn’t  _ trying _ to play sneaky - at least not with him.

She took a few steps more and paused a few feet ahead of him. She had a rather serious look burnt onto her face. No smile. No smirk. Only flat determination, and perhaps a tinge of disgust.

“Hello Brass.” She mumbled quietly, though just enough for him to hear. She spoke with no enthusiasm. No snark, no hubris. Just plain  _ resentment. _

Brass raised an eyebrow to her. He had been told to expect a rather playful demeanour in her. Someone snarky and self-assured. This seemed... Uncharacteristic.

“Say something.” She grumbled, her upper lip quivering ever so slightly.

“I-I...” He stared. “I don’t know what you want to hear from me. Whatever struggles you have with my ex wife, well, I’m not  _ entirely _ involved in-”

She laughed through her teeth. “With your  _ ex wife? _ ” She repeated, dumbfounded. “I don’t have  _ anything _ to do with her.  _ YOU _ are the one I take issue with.”

He stared blankly at her. “A-And why is that...?”

Her face fell and she shut her eyes for a moment, as if trying to keep her cool. “You were the champion, Brass. You were the one who signed off on it.” She took a step forward. “Without a single thought to what it might have meant for the people you  _ steamrolled _ over.”

“I-I...?” He was genuinely confused.

“All you saw was an opportunity to stretch your damn ego even further. You and your little friends, basking in the limelight, but not  _ content _ enough to stay put. You just  _ had _ to have more and more reach,  _ everywhere _ you could, until NOTHING that wasn’t about  _ you _ and your  _ League _ remained.”

He quietly extended an ARM down to his side and placed his empty glass to the floor. “Look, kid. I know what you’ve been doing with my associates. I know you take their forms and use them for your own. I may not know for  _ why _ but I know damn well that you don’t have a reason good enough to excuse it.”

She glared at him angrily, her lip sharpening upward. Her eyes seemed to water slightly with every word he spoke.

“I’m not going down without a fight.” He raised his ARMS upward. “If you want my face you’ll have to really work for it. And I  _ don’t _ go down easy.”

She laughed. And then began to laugh more, until she was having a decently long giggle-fit. “You- You want to  _ fight _ me?”

“I’ve heard of your tricks.” He glared. “I’m still tough-as-nails, and if you think putting on Ribbon’s face will be enough to beat me, well, you’ve got another thing coming. It was her  _ passion _ and  _ confidence _ that gave her the edge. And I sincerely doubt you compare.”

Mimicutie inhaled deeply. “I’m not  _ here _ to fight you, Brass. I’m not even here to take your face!” She smirked. “Besides, I doubt you’d be willing to get dressed for me, and you’re not much use in a dressing gown.” Brass was only draped in a red gown and some lazy-day clothes, after all.

He glared at her, and for a moment a bead of sweat dropped down his neck. Something about all of this felt off. She was acting unlike how she addressed  _ any _ of the other fighters - at least from what he had heard - and she seemed pretty upset. What exactly could she be here for, if it wasn’t to duplicate him?

With a deep breath, Mimi calmed herself. “Y’know... My dad never had ARMS. He never needed them, though, he got by just fine without ‘em.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “And he used to say to me,  _ Alison!! _ ” She sniffled, putting on a deeper voice to represent that of her father’s. “ _ One-a these days you could be a  _ **_fighter!_ ** _ You’ll getcha self in that  _ **_League_ ** _ and I’ll come cheer ya on every night you’re out there! _ ”

Brass tried to piece things together as quickly as he could. Did she want to be a League fighter, but then fail at the try-outs? Could  _ that _ be what all this is about?

She sniffled again, some tears running down her cheeks from her bright white eyes. “I respected you people, y’know... I truly thought this was all a great sport, and no one  _ really _ got hurt.”

Okay, wait, did she get hurt? No... Did her  _ dad _ get hurt? He’d never beaten anyone to the point of injury before, had he? Why was this so hard to figure out?!

“But you people...” Her teeth chattered. “You’re like an insatiable  _ hunger _ crossing all across the planet that just  _ does. Not. End. _ ”

“I-”

“ **_I AM TALKING!_ ** ” She yelled violently, some spit flying from her bared teeth. Her chest heaved up and down in anger. “SHUT THE FUCK UP AND  _ LISTEN _ FOR ONCE!”

He closed his mouth, now somewhat afraid. She was only a small thing, sure, but this  _ anger... _ Just what the hell  _ had _ he done to her?

Her breathing slowed gradually, and she grew something of a defeated smile on her face. “That’s just the thing, really... You never  _ listen. _ We tried so hard -  _ So. Hard. _ \- to just have you hear us out, but...” She wiped her eye again. “It was all just for nothing. You just walked right over us anyway.”

He remained silent. He felt as though he should try to talk back in  _ some _ way,  _ any _ way - perhaps this called for a sympathetic approach...? Perhaps he should continue to be commanding, and steal back the dominance in this scenario? But ultimately he did what he felt she would want most of all and stayed silent.

Mimicutie looked to the floor. “ _ I’ll talk to my people about it. _ ” She quoted, solemnly. “That’s what you told him.” She wiped her nose. “And, I think, within the very next minute... You had forgotten he had even come to speak to you at all. You never talked to anyone about it. You never even gave it a second thought.” She shrugged. “You just  _ took. _ ”

After some debilitating, he decided to speak up. “...I-I’m sorry.”

She squinted at him.

“I-I’ll admit, in honesty, that I-I really have no idea what you’re talking about, but-”

She gave a short laugh. “I figured as much.”

“...B-But that doesn’t mean I don’t believe what you’re saying. I promise.” He angled his hands flatly toward her, like a gentle sign he was no longer playing the offensive. His more sympathetic approach, for what it’s worth, seemed to actually help.

Mimicutie stared blankly over Brass’s shoulder and out of the window behind him, letting her eyes unfocus and blur as she felt empty inside. “...It’s too late now.”

“ _ Please, _ ” he urged, “if there’s anything I can do to make things right with you, I’d be happy to. I promise.”

She smirked sadly. “It’s too late. For that. Now.” She mumbled.

Without another word, she began to slowly walk forward. Brass played the defensive still, raising his palms to her as if to urge that he didn’t want any trouble.

She paused, now within ARMS reach of him. She stared into his chest. “You’ll just be the first of many, in the end.” She then flicked her eyes up to him. “But, in honesty?  _ Easily _ the most meaningful.”

What happened next happened so quickly and suddenly that Brass had little time to process any of it until his eyes were blurring and his breath was tinged with the taste of blood. Mimicutie had grabbed the nearby steak knife left on the table and thrust it into his abdomen with enough strength to lodge the entire length of the blade within him. His breath instantly grew short, and he froze from the sudden pain.

She twisted the knife, causing Brass to grunt out in immense and searing pain. He pushed a hand to the floor to keep him on his feet, as he leaned slightly over Mimicutie, who’s hand was still firmly on the handle, beginning to get soaked in his blood. “Part of me thought...” She mumbled, a little shakily. “That I might feel something at this point.” She inhaled deeply, then slowly exhaled. “Success? Enjoyment? ...Regret, maybe?” She shut her eyes, some tears escaping down her cheeks in the process. “...But I really don’t feel anything.”

Brass could barely see now. His ears rang loudly, drowning out her voice.

She smiled softly, through her tears. “One of many.”

And with that, she suddenly lunged back - removing the blade from within his body - and kicked her foot forward. Brass flew back and crashed through the window he had been stood at, shattered glass flying out into the open air alongside him, as he began to fall down to the street below.

Mimicutie dropped the knife and left without another thought.


	12. Safe House

Min Min flipped through the magazine she had taken from the nearby pile. “This stuff is  _ ancient. _ What’s the date on this?” She flipped it over to the back and examined the small text. “ _ Ninety four?! _ ”

Coyle shrugged, across the room. “I cancelled all my subscriptions when I stopped being a loser and started being a bruiser. Those are just the ones I vaulted.”

“Couldn’t have hurt to stop by the corner shop on your way here, y’know...” She grumbled under her breath.

Ribbon Girl and Mechanica were equally nearby to Min Min, and were playing a casual game of Connect Four. Across the room was Coyle, at a desk that had been dragged to the back for her. Between Coyle and the other three? Twenty feet of empty space.

A thick yellow line was drawn on the floor with paint, about twice an ARMS-length away from Coyle. If anything with a heart beat - or a sufficiently strong battery, like in Springtron or BYTE - crossed that line, a roof-mounted tessla coil would instantly blast them with enough electrical energy to short-out their ARMS for a good while. The exception to this rule, of course, was Coyle herself.

This was the method through which Coyle intended to keep herself free from Mimicutie’s grasp. Brass and Springtron, both currently out-and-about and unaccounted for, could very well be Mimicutie’s next targets. But Coyle was assured she wouldn’t be caught - and without her? The collection was to be left incomplete.

The three across the room, in the designated ‘safe’ area by the bulkhead door, were simply there to keep Coyle company. And to help her brainstorm, she supposed.

“This is  _ so _ boring.” Min Min groaned, laying back on the small sofa she had to herself. “You’d think a safehouse would have more stuff to keep you busy or somethin’.”

“There used to be a pool table, I think.” Coyle mumbled back. “We started using this place for storage after twenty-ten. We realized we never really used it, so we started making use of the space.” She took a sip of her coffee. “Had to throw all that junk out last night to set this all up, though.”

The bunker they resided in was originally designed as a fallout shelter, in case of an attack during the Cold War. Its walls could withstand a  _ hearty _ dose of radiation, its entrance had two separate bulkhead doors that couldn’t both be opened at the same time, and the electricity was hooked up to two generators faaaar underground. It was the perfect place to set up a safehouse.

Mechanica put a red circle down into one of the gaps on the vertical plastic board. “That’s four!”

“Huh?” Ribbon Girl peered closer. “Wha-?! Mannn, no fair!!”

Mechanica giggled, smiling brightly to herself.

Hearing the end of that session, Min Min rolled over slightly to address her girlfriend. “Yo, uhh... You wanna bring  _ that _ up with Coyle?”

Ribbon Girl looked uneasy.

Coyle’s ears perked up, and she looked over at the three. “Hm...?”

With a deep breath, Ribbon Girl turned to Coyle. “Min Min and I were talking last night and, uhh...” She nervously adjusted herself in her chair. “...We think you should reconsider the Distant Future Funland angle.”

Coyle stared blankly. “ _ You’re kidding me. _ ”

“We put some more thought into it last night and we really think Min Min might have been onto something.” Ribbon Girl insisted. “I didn’t believe it at first either, but now I really think it’s a possibility!”

With a deep inhale, Coyle, leant back on her chair. “ _ Fine. _ Impress me!”

Min Min leant up a bit on her sofa. “Okay, well, same deal as last time - I propose Mimi is the daughter of some dude who owned Distant Future Funland. She was particularly into the hall of mirrors, so she wound up with mirror ARMS! The League shuts ‘em down and builds a League-themed park on top of it. That explains the hatred for the ARMS League!”

“So far this is all awful and that’s  _ still _ a stupid motive.” Coyle glared, leaning back on her chair.

“Okay, well, let me address your complaints from last time, then!” Min Min smirked. “Why’s she ‘collecting’ League faces?  _ She’s not. _ ” Her smile fell. “...Or maybe she  _ is? _ I’ve got two angles on this, hear me out.”

Coyle rested her head up with her elbow, already fed up with this explanation.

“First theory is that she’s  _ not _ collecting faces. It’s all just a distraction so that our team here - which she’s aware is trying to stop her - would wind up hiding away come Friday in the fear that she’ll still be after the faces she needs. With us set aside, she can wreak havoc on ARMS League World when it’s open without us getting in the way. Perfect vengeance for Funland being closed. And if that was her plan? _ She succeeded! _ ”

Coyle didn’t seem much amused. “And your second theory?”

“It ties into that first one, hear me out...” Min Min smiled coyly. “She  _ is _ collecting League faces, but she doesn’t need  _ all _ of them. She’s not gonna bother going after yours because she predicted and  _ wanted _ the whole safehouse shebang. But when she’s tearing up ARMS League? The more faces she has, the more League fighters she can pin the damages on. People will be runnin’ and screamin’ from Master Mummy and Ninjara and Kay-Cee, so they’ll assume it’s the  _ League  _ who attacked them.”

“Which is still easily disproven after the fact once we show the mimicry footage from Kid Cobra’s stream.” Coyle reminded.

“Y-Yes, but...” Ribbon Girl interjected. “We don’t think Mimi’s acting in the long-term here. Maybe she hasn’t thought that far ahead...? What you said about seeking revenge for ruining our careers, well, neither Min or I would do that...” She shrugged, a little uncertain but still dutifully believing what she was proposing. “But maybe Mimi is a little unhinged. I mean, I think you’d  _ have _ to be to do all of this in the first place.” She still felt a great deal of pity for Mimicutie, so talking about her like that honestly felt a little mean. ”So maybe Funland closing  _ is _ enough of a reason for her, a-and she’s simply not thinking long-term with all of this, because she’s not really all that sound in the head...?”

Mechanica nervously shrugged her shoulders. “That...  _ Does _ all kinda make sense to me.”

Coyle pouted for a moment. “...Fine, I’ll tell you what...” She leant forward again. “Kid Cobra got released from the hospital last night and, if I know Kid Cobra, he’ll be at ARMS League World today regardless of his lasting injuries. Master Mummy also said he’d be taking his son there today.  _ Both _ of them know full well that Mimicutie is a threat, so if they see anything out of the ordinary? I’m sure they’ll call us.” She shrugged. “Is that fine, then?”

“Sure, I guess...” Min Min sighed, feeling like Coyle was just trying to shut down that idea once and for all.

“Good!” She smiled, taking her coffee mug in her hand again. “Any other wild theories you want to throw out?”

Mechanica cautiously raised her hand.

“Mm?”

“...Sorry, but it  _ has _ come to my head before...” She smiled nervously. ”Um... Mimi’s not, um, got a grudge specifically against  _ you, _ does she? Like... You haven’t ever experimented on an unwilling person before, having you?”

Coyle squinted. “That’s... Possible, I’ll admit. We’ve had a history of, well...  _ Things _ in this Lab. Perhaps I have some things I regret. Some things I’m not proud of...” She scratched the back of her head. “But I don’t think Mimi’s related to the Lab in any way. I don’t recognise her, certainly. No one of her ethnicity and age range comes to mind.”

“Hm.” Mechanica quietly nodded.

“You’re whack, doc.” Min Min sighed, laying back on the sofa. “Wake me up when-”

The red light above the door began to flash suddenly. “O-Oh??” Mechanica jumped. “Someone’s opened the outer bulkhead...!”

Coyle tapped at her laptop quickly. “...Key card entry from Springtron. Hm.” They had, since the incident earlier in the week, disabled the retinal scanners. But Springtron’s key card system was a built-in process and they had already learnt that Mimicutie was capable of mimicking robots... Hm. “Right, well, you three be ready for any surprises.”

With all eyes on the large mechanically-controlled door, it soon rolled back to reveal Springtron behind it... Carrying an unresponsive Brass.

“H-Huh...?” Coyle sat up in her chair.

He thunked the hulking man down to the floor, where the three nearby quickly dropped down to check on him.

“H-He’s breathing but he’s out cold...??” Ribbon Girl panicked.

“Check his neck.” Coyle stared. “Look for a small purple circle.”

“Uhhhh...” Ribbon Girl looked around. “...A-Ah, yeah, there is one??”

Coyle sat down again, somewhat relieved. “Springtron’s sedated him, then. That’s fine - I told him to do that if he needed to bring Brass here for whatever reason. Keeps me focused.” She clapped her hands toward Springtron. “Give me your report.”

Springtron walked to the yellow line, stopping just short of it. He puffed his chest out and a small compartment slid open. A large cartridge shot out from within and launched over to Coyle, who caught it and slipped it into a reading device beside her laptop.

She ran her eyes back and forth over the screen, a finger to her chin. “I had him watching Brass from a nearby rooftop, just in case our little  _ friend _ showed up...  _ Good lord. _ Looks like she threw him  _ from a building. _ ”

Min Min, who had been staring wide-eyed at Brass’s unmoving face, turned to Coyle. “She threw him from a _ building?? _ She wasn’t that extreme with any of  _ us! _ ”

“Springtron boosted forward, caught him, and crashed the two of them through one of the lower floors. Saved him hitting the ground, but it did a number on Springtron’s leg plating and-” She stopped suddenly, her eyes jumping wide at what she had just read. She turned immediately to face the others again. “ _ He’s been stabbed.  _ Check his belly.”

Ribbon Girl and Min Min looked at each other briefly as Mechanica clamped her hands over her mouth. Min Min pulled back Brass’s gown and checked around for a- “Oh god, yikes,  _ yeah. _ ” She muttered, horrified. She ran two fingers over the wound. “I-It’s all kinda... Icy?”

“Springtron patched him up after catching him. Nothing  _ too _ repairing, but it’d certainly have stopped the bleeding and helped out internally.” Coyle drummed her finger tips to her chin, rather _ nervously _ . “...Shit.  _ Shit, _ this is really bad.” She mumbled. “The way she’s been acting this whole week, I never actually thought she’d  _ use _ that weapon. But now she’s just tried to  _ kill _ one of us...”

Ribbon Girl and Min Min did their best to lift Brass, but  _ boy _ was he heavy. After some struggling, Springtron walked over and began to help out too. Together the three of them placed him down on the sofa, where they figured he’d be better off.

Coyle sat down again and continued to read the report Springtron sent, and then reread it over once more. “Looks like she never found Springtron. So he’s not been copied yet either.” She mumbled. “Doesn’t look like he was close enough to see if Brass got copied or not, though. He says something about seeing his back to the window shortly before his fall, so he was clearly talking with her, but... Hm.”

The tension in the air was rather rough. Things were pretty extreme now, and while Coyle may have been safe at the end of the room, each of the other three had a lingering worry that Springtron may very well be Mimi in disguise. That’d be possible, right? She could have copied him and ejected a fake report, no?

At the very least,  _ nothing _ could lighten the mood here now. Had Lola been here her constant jokes would meet the ire of each of them, earning her a death glare from the corner of every eye in the room. The most likely-

Ribbon Girl’s phone rang.

Coyle gave an audible grunt, while Min Min side-eyed Ribbon Girl. “S-Sorry...” She mumbled, retrieving her phone from her pocket. She felt pretty embarrassed to have her phone going off at a time like  _ this, _ and even more so due to her ringtone being her own eccentric singing. It was a bit surprising, though, that phone coverage extended all the way down here - it really  _ was _ the best place for a safehouse possible, huh?

Ribbon Girl flipped her phone open and quickly put it to her ear. Before she could give a greeting of her own, a voice on the other end immediately began to shout at her. “YOOO, WHADDAP CHAMP!”

She rolled her eyes, not really feeling his enthusiasm right now. “Hey, Cobra...”

“YOOO, DUDE!” He yelled. “I’M IN LINE FOR THE Ki-Ki-Ki- _ KING COBRAAAAA!  _ IT’S GONNA BE  _ WILDDDDD! _ ”

“Cool, dude.” She replied flatly. “I’m kinda dealing with something right now, so we’ll have to talk l-”

“YO, BUT HOLD UP A SEC!” He interrupted. “I’M CALLIN’ YA FOR A REASON!”

If this was about getting Min Min to come share the fun, the answer was still going be a firm  _ no.  _ “Go on...”

“YOU AIN’T  _ AT _ THE PARK RIGHT NOW, ARE YA?”

“No.” She sighed. “I’m with Coyle in a bunker like a billion miles underground. I wouldn’t be caught dead there anyway, honestly.”

“OHHH SHIIIT, DAWG!” He yelped slightly. “AW DUDE, BUT MAN, I  _ SEE _ YOU RIGHT NOW!”

“...What?”

“YOU’RE OVER THERE BY THE LAGOON, MY DUDE! YOU AIN’T EVEN GOTCHA PHONE TO YOUR EAR, MAN, AW  _ SHIT!” _ He groaned. “THAT’S GOTTA BE BABYGIRL, HUH? WHAT’S SHE  _ DOIN’ _ HERE?!”

Ribbon Girl put the phone flat against her chest and turned to Coyle, a look of deathly seriousness in her eye. “Mimi’s at the park. She  _ is _ going after ARMS League World.”

“ _ What? _ ” Coyle perked up, getting to her feet suddenly.

She put the phone back to her ear. “What’s she doing right now...?”

“I DUNNO MAN, SHE’S JUST KINDA STANDIN’ THERE. SHE’S, LIKE, LOOKIN’ AROUND A BUNCH. DOESN’T LOOK HAPPY, THOUGH. GUESS SHE DOESN’T LIKE PARKS?”

“Cobra, you  _ need  _ to keep an eye on her. If she draws her ARMS you  _ have _ to fight her back from doing... Well,  _ anything _ . We’ll be over as soon as we can.”

“AWWW MAN, I’M ABOUT TO GET ON THE  _ KING, _ THOUGH!”

“ _ This is more important. _ ” She insisted. “Do  _ not _ let her out of your sights. If you see Mummy, tell him to get his son out of there as quickly as he can. Hell, if you see  _ any _ children you have to get them out of there. B-But don’t cause a commotion! We can’t set her off.”

“FFFFFFFFF, ALRIGHT SIS, I’VE GOT THIS THEN.”

Ribbon Girl flipped her phone shut and addressed the room. “She’s idle right now but we may not have much time.”

“We’ll have to hurry.” Coyle nodded, coming back across the yellow line. And using her personal key card to open both bulkheads at once. “Mechanica, you stay here with Brass and watch over him. Try and get him some medical attention from upstairs.”

“B-But I can come help!” Mechanica pleaded.

“ _ No. _ ” Coyle shut-down, firmly. “She’s already tried to  _ kill _ one of us, I’m not putting you in that situation. She likely has the weapon with her.  _ It’s not safe. _ ” She turned back to the door as they waited for it to open. “Besides... Better to have Brass in good hands.”

Min Min raised an eyebrow uneasily. “You think she’ll have the weapon with her...? How would she have gotten it  _ in _ there?”

“She’s disguised as the League champion. She probably bypassed all the entry stuff entirely. A lot of parks have hidden walkways underground, so she could have had it moved there without telling anyone what it was.” Coyle sighed. “Time we start taking this Funland theory seriously, even if it  _ is _ a weak motive. We’ll do some research on the way there.” She still didn’t really  _ believe _ it, though. No one could really be  _ that _ hung up over a theme park closing, right?

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Over in ARMS League World, Mimicutie stood in the central plaza with a dry glare on her face. All the colour and fast-paced thrill rides, all the little cutouts of Helix and statues of Max Brass... It was all so  _ disgusting. _

Was this  _ really _ what the world needed? A massive park to glorify  _ these _ assholes? Over-the-top rides based in the likeness of fifteen people that represented everything  _ wrong _ with overly popular trends?

And all of this... Built _ here. _ Over the remains of her father’s pride-and-joy. Her family’s legacy. The place she grew up. The place she called a home. They just steamrolled right over it.

She wiped a small tear from her eye and brought a sad smile to her face.

Well...  _ Today’s the day~ _


	13. Make Them Pay

Mimicutie, disguised as Ribbon Girl, looked up at the imposing statue at the center of the ARMS League World plaza. It was immensely intricate and featured each of the current League fighters in full-body fighting poses, with Max Brass flexing at the back and Ribbon Girl hopping at the front. It was odd to look at this statue now that she had met with most of these faces. Now that she could  _ be _ most of these faces.

“Wh-hey hey hey!” Sang a goofy voice from beside her. “Enjoying the park, Ms. Champion? You’re a real...  _ Star! _ ”

Mimicutie turned her head. It was some worker in a mascot costume. His overly large Biff head looked pretty heavy. How tacky. We didn’t have these kind of stupid big-headed mascot suits back at Distant Future Funland... We had workers dressed in sleek space suits, with tinted visors and space-age technology on a utility belt. The kind of thing a kid could look up to and think ‘ _ Woah,  _ **_I_ ** _ wanna be that!’. _ But what was the point of  _ this? _ It’s just stupid. It doesn’t  _ inspire. _ It doesn’t  _ amaze. _ What an embarrassment.

The vicious glare he was receiving from Ribbon Girl was rather unnerving, and it was lasting  _ far _ too long. “H-Haha... O-Okay, champ, s-see you around...” With that, he waddled off elsewhere.

Her attention went back to the statue above.  _ Today’s the day. _

Min Min stopped the car as close to the entrance as she could, not really worrying about the poor parking, and got out. “Doesn’t look like there’s much going on - think she hasn’t started yet?”

“We can hope...” Ribbon Girl replied, quickly hopping out of the passenger side.

“I should have everything we need to know now.” Coyle said, staring at a small tablet computer as she left the car. “We’ll confront her quickly and try to disway her from starting anything - we  _ do _ outnumber her, after all.” She threw the tablet aside carelessly, breaking it on the pavement somewhere closeby. “If there’s  _ one _ thing you go into this remembering, just keep in mind that we have the upper hand  _ so long as she doesn’t raise her ARM. _ ”

“You don’t think four of us could take on gold Hedlok...?” Ribbon Girl asked, concerned.

“It’s not Hedlok I’m worried about, believe me.” She muttered. “Springtron - stay close by to me and follow orders without hesitation. This might get messy.”

The four of them headed over to the entrance, where many people were lined up for tickets. Min Min butt-in ahead of the entire line and stared deeply at the man behind the glass. “ _ There’s a bomb in the park. _ You need to evacuate  _ immediately. _ ” It wasn’t the whole truth - she still wasn’t so sure what Mimicutie had stolen - but she figured it’d give the kind of feeling she wanted to get across.

The man stared back at her wide-eyed. “H-Holy shit...!” He muttered, before getting to his feet and grabbing the phone at the back of the booth.

“This way, Min.” Coyle shouted as she and the others hopped right over the turnstile.

They ran their way to the center of the park, looking all over for where she might be. The park was  _ full _ of people, and every ride was in motion with a full carriage - and plenty more in line, too. This was a pretty dire situation.

“There she is.” Coyle muttered, glaring at the figure of Ribbon Girl in the distance as they approached.

Mimicutie stared up at the statue for one last time. She felt rather melancholy - a feeling she had been stuck with for years now. Her mind went back once again to past concerns: when she’d arrive here, where she now stood, about to go through with it all... What  _ would _ she feel? Turns out, much like her interaction with Brass, she really didn’t feel much at all. No pleasure. No regret. Just emptiness.

“Hey, it’s Ribbon Girl!” A nearby guest shouted from the edge of the plaza.

She rolled her eyes. Being disguised like this sure brought with it an annoying amount of attention. But if she had a direct witness to  _ Ribbon Girl’s _ first hand in the destruction to unfold? Well, that’s just  _ convenient. _ With a soft smile, she knew it was time to begin.

“Huh?” Came another voice from the sidelines. “There are  _ two _ Ribbon Girls, now?”

Mimicutie’s face fell.  _ Two _ Ribbon Girls...?  _ Wait... _

She turned around and saw the real Ribbon Girl, Min Min, Dr. Coyle, and Springtron approaching. Her eyes lit up quickly and she took a step back. “Oh no you don’t...” She whispered under her breath. A quick burst of steam turned her into Ninjara, and she swung back a chained ARM and equipped a  _ Triblast. _ “BACK THE FUCK OFF!” She shouted at them, angrily. This was  _ not _ going to be taken from her now, after how far she’d come.

They stopped in their tracks, about twice an ARM’s length from her. Onlookers seemed puzzled - those who had seen two Ribbon Girls just a second ago weren’t sure why Ninjara was now in her place, and everyone in general was uncertain about the  _ Triblast _ he had equipped.

“Don’t do anything  _ stupid. _ ” Coyle spat.

She grinned. “Oh,  _ sure, _ I’ll just give up and let you take me away - I  _ don’t _ think!”

“Mimi, please, you don’t have to do all this!” Ribbon Girl pleaded. “It’s not worth it!”

“ _ Worth _ it?” She spat. “What do  _ you _ know about what this is worth?!”

“Oh look at yourself already,  _ Alison. _ ” Coyle glared. “You really think this will change anything?”

Her face fell somewhat. “ _ A-Alison...? _ ”

“We know who you are.” Min Min muttered. “Looked you up on the ride over.”

“Alison Brii, daughter of Samuel Brii.” Coyle continued. “Owner of Distant Future Funland.  _ Former  _ owner, rather. You got upset about the park being shut down so you blamed the League. And now you’re here to frame them for an attack  _ and _ destroy the park at the same time.”

“Ha!” She grinned nervously. “Took you long enough to figure  _ that _ out! I was beginning to think you’d just keep running around like headless chickens ‘til it was too late to stop me.” Her Triblast rumbled slightly with explosive energy. “ _ Not that it  _ **_isn’t_ ** _ too late already. _ ”

“Oh for god’s sake, Alison.” Coyle glared. “Do you  _ really _ think all this is worth it? We have footage of you copying Lola and Cobra. We have witnesses to you copying Min Min.  _ No one _ will be blaming the League for this.

“ _ SHUT UP! _ ” She shouted angrily, shaking a little. She had prepared for this moment for years, but wasn’t prepared for having these assholes turn up last-second. All those distraction efforts... Shouldn’t they be in a bunker right now??

“Coyle’s right, Mimi!” Ribbon Girl insisted. “You  _ don’t _ have to do this! You’ll just hurt innocent people!”

“They are  _ not _ inno-” She stopped herself mid-sentence, a little uneasy. Her jaw chattered a bit as her chest heaved up and down with anxiety. Okay, yes, they  _ were _ innocent people, but... B-But...  _ Bah! _ Now is  _ not  _ the time for thinking about this - she is  _ not _ turning back now!

“I know you’re _ hurting! _ ” Ribbon Girl continued. “But we can help you! We can put all this right somehow without  _ anyone _ else getting hurt!  _ Please _ let us help you!”

“ _ IT’S TOO LATE TO PUT IT RIGHT. _ ” She seethed through her teeth.

“ _ Fucking hell. _ ” Coyle groaned. “You’re  _ this _ upset over a fucking theme park? How the  _ hell _ is that worth all of this?”

Mimicutie fell still for a moment, Ninjara’s expression changing to one of empty resentment. “This park was my  _ life. _ ” She muttered. “It was my family’s legacy. I  _ grew up _ here.” A single tear rolled down from below Ninjara’s mask. “You people took that from me and built over it a monument to your  _ GREED _ and  _ HUNGER _ and  _ FUCKING ARROGANCE! _ ”

Her eyes flicked somewhere behind the four, to a nearby ride - Min Min’s Dragon Dare. The coaster had just gone around another loop, leaving little cinders in the air from its glowing mouth as it slipped past.

She took one last look at the four, and then cocked a sad smile. “And now? I take from  _ you. _ ” Ninjara disappeared in a poof, reappearing high up beside the support stands of the coaster. His Triblast swung through the air and collided with part of the track in a mighty boom, catching the attention of many guests down below. They all turned to look at the source of the bang - a thick plume of black smoke coming from a broken split in the ride.

Several people screamed at the sight, as several other booms began echoing through the park as Ninjara jumped around and continued his assault lower on the stands the ride sat on. After one last explosion, the left-hand side of the track collapsed, as the people below began to scream and flee.

“ _ Shit! _ ” Coyle gasped as the others stared up, wide-eyed. She turned to Springtron quickly. “ _ Get those people off the coaster! _ ”

He jumped up with an incredible boost, landing firmly on the right-hand side of the tracks, where the panicked riders were about to loop around again. He clamped his feet down and stuck out his ARMS, ready to force that coaster to stop as best as he possibly can.

Mimicutie, content with that destruction, flipped back as Ninjara and transformed to Lola before striking the ground. She bounced right back up, a little closer to the Ninja Swing now, and swapped over to BYTE mid-air. A Seekie shot forth and struck the electrical box outside the ride, causing a big burst of electrical energy to course through to the ride and shut it down - just as the swing had come up full-circle, leaving it stuck _upside down_.  
  
Coyle watched as Mimicutie once again transformed back to Lola and bounced her way to her next target. She turned to Ribbon Girl and Min Min suddenly. “Well don’t just _stand_ there!!”  
  
They nodded quickly and head off after Mimicutie. Ribbon Girl panted heavily, rather distressed, and eyed the upside-down Ninja Swing. “I-I’m on that, I think!” She split off from the others and made her way toward it.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Lola landed in the middle of the Twintelle Teacups and kicked the park worked aside. She bent down suddenly and ripped open a panel from the floor, before equipping her Funchuck and forcing it down into the rotors beneath the ride. It began to spin faster and faster around, and each teacup began to spin faster too.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Min Min landed beside Lola and outstretched an ARM back, but before she could land it, Lola whacked her in the face with a Biffler. By the time she managed to get the blue gunk out of her eyes, Mimicutie had feld already.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
She looked to the spinning teacups around her. Even watching it made her dizzy - she couldn’t _ stand _ the thought of how it must feel to be one of the poor souls in those cups right now. She looked down at the hatch Mimicutie had opened... Gah! Would  _ this  _ work...? She charged a Megawatt and blasted the ride’s circuits, hoping it might cause it to stop.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Ribbon Girl jumped through the air as she ascended to the stalled Ninja Swing. Once she had gotten within distance, she did her best to thunk the side of it with her Slapamanders, before slowly falling back down and having to make her way back up again. “ _ Come on... _ ” She pleaded as she tried to force the ride back into motion.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Mimicutie hurried on, noticing Coyle on her tail. She quickly passed by the Buster Lagoon and struck a Coolerang to one of the drops, freezing both the water and the ride mechanism of that particular area. Coyle tried to keep on Mimicutie’s watch, but had to fall back briefly to catch a policebot-themed log full of people from sliding off of the drop. By the time she had put the carriage down, she had lost track of Mimicutie.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
With no luck un-sticking the ride, Ribbon Girl tried to piece together another plan. She hurried back down to that electrical box Mimicutie had fried. She didn’t know the first thing about electronics, but it _ seemed _ as though the power had been cut, so she charged a Sparky and gently placed it to the exposed circuitry. Nothing seemed to happen at first, but slowly the lights on the ride began to flicker back on one-by-one. “ _ YES! _ ” She grinned with relief.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Min Min helped the  _ immensely _ dizzy riders out of each stopped teacup, having to watch out for a few of them who couldn’t help but give up their lunches. She turned back to the rest of the park - just about everyone who wasn’t on a ride had fled now, clearing up her view of the other attractions quite well. She squinted, noticing someone pass by quickly in the  _ wrong _ direction, and gave chase.  
  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Springtron returned to Coyle. She turned to him and looked to his legs - they were _ badly _ damaged from stopping the dragon coaster, but upon inspection of the nearby ride it seemed he had managed to stop the carriage before it reached the dilapidated part. “Good work.” She mumbled. “Stay close to me, I might need you...”

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   
  
Min Min chased after her own duplicate. “HEY!” She shouted.

Mimicutie turned to look over her shoulder. “This is actually pretty fun!” She smiled, equipping Min Min’s Dragon. She aimed it toward the Ribbon Twister and carved a split at the tip of one of the loops, leaving the track parts unaligned.

Min Min groaned, leaving Mimicutie’s trail again to go after the ride. It looked like the carriage wasn’t going to be there for a short while still, so she had some time to scale up to the split...

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Ribbon Girl began to panic further. Her electrical input wasn’t enough to budge the swing more than a couple inches every few seconds, and it was really taking a lot out of her to charge it.

“Need a hand?” Coyle quickly commented, dropping down beside her and jamming a Parabola in alongside her Sparky. The ride began to move at a decent speed, now.

“Oh thank  _ god _ you’re here!” Ribbon Girl grinned widely. “Where’s Mimi??”

“I don’t know, I lost her.” Coyle mumbled. “How many more rides still have people on them...?”

“I don’t know...” Ribbon Girl looked around, distressed. “OH!” She shouted. “The-”

The two of them watched in horror as a Triblast shot struck the Spring Launcher’s seating area at its highest point. The strike damaged its connection to the tower, and it began to fall down with  _ no _ stopping mechanism.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Min Min, now dangling from the top of the Ribbon Twister, did her very best not to look right down. She grabbed one end of the split and held onto it tightly, down on the lower support of it where her ARMS wouldn’t be run over by the passing coaster. She charged up her other ARM and grabbed the split that had angled lower. With a deep breath she used the strength of her dragon ARM to pull the track up and realign it with its other side, which took an  _ immense _ amount of effort.

The coaster approached and she shut her eyes, hoping for the best.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mimicutie, disguised as Ribbon Girl again now, watched with a smile on her face as the Spring Launcher began to fall. The resulting collision with the ground would surely-  _ Huh?! _

Two large ARMS shot right up and pressed back against the seating area from below, slowing its descent to something more manageable. She followed the pale twisting rolls of bandage to its source - Master Mummy, who was directly below, struggling to keep it up.  _ Hm. _

She dropped down ahead of him. “Are you ticklish, Mummy?” She smiled. “Well, this’ll be more than a tickle...” She equipped Ribbon Girl’s Sparky and charged it up, ready to make Mummy’s ARMS fall to the floor, leaving the ride to crush him like a bug.

Suddenly an ARM swung from her right and slapped her square in the face. She flew back and smashed against a nearby trash can, spilling its contents all around. She looked up angrily.

“GET SLAMMED ON, GURL!” Kid Cobra gleed, his ARMS up for a fight.

She rubbed the spot where his Slamamander had struck her. “ _ Someone _ healed quickly...” She glared.

Coyle and Ribbon Girl approached nearby. “END OF THE LINE, ALISON.” Coyle grunted.

Min Min approached soon too, holding the wrist of her now-ramen left ARM, which was really quite aching.

The Spring Launcher’s seating area finally met the ground with a gentle  _ -tink!- _ and its passengers quickly unbuckled and ran for the entrance. Master Mummy stomped over and joined the others.

Mimicutie backed up quietly as she undisguised herself. She was clearly sweating a fair bit, and her expression didn’t seem all that confident.

“By my count? That should be  _ everyone _ safely away with no fatalities.” Coyle smirked. “Some legacy  _ you _ upheld, eh?”

She glared at her. “Tell that to  _ Max Brass. _ ”

“Perhaps I will!” She shrugged. “He’s receiving medical attention at the ARMS Lab as we speak. Springtron stopped his fall - he’s gonna be  _ fine. _ ”

Mimicutie stared for a moment, before a small laugh came from her. And then she began to laugh more, and more. “W-Well isn’t that just  _ PERFECT? _ ” She giggled. “Ohhhhh  _ mannnn... _ ” A long, drawn-out sigh. “I really do hate you all, y’know that?”

Mimicutie rose her ARM in the air, and in a panic everyone seemed to gasp. Coyle, thinking fast, swung a bare fist to her stomach and sent her right back against the wall.

She coughed viciously and struggled to gasp for air, having had the wind blown out from her, just as a heavily distorted roar shot through the park.

“W-What?!” Coyle stepped back. She wasn’t quick enough to stop it. “ _ SH-SHIT! _ ” She turned her attention to her fellow fighters. “EVERYBODY BACK UP!”

Mimicutie began to laugh again, distortedly through her weak gasps for air, as she carefully leaned herself up. “I’ll admit, I really wasn’t looking f-forward to this part...” She coughed again, still in pain from what was likely a broken rib or two. “It’s gonna hurt, isn’t it?”

The concrete nearby smashed open as an unidentifiable bulk of machinery shot out from beneath the park. It soared into the air and cast a heavy shadow to the ground, before arching back and jolting right back down, where it landed with a heavy clanking noise right on top of Mimicutie’s head.

Mimicutie screamed hard in what could only be, from the tone of her distress,  _ indescribable pain.  _ A crushing noise emerged from her head, and slowly her everlasting scream began to grow more and more distorted and robotic, until finally Mimicutie stopped screaming.

The metalic head now  _ firmly _ in place Mimicutie’s shoulders had a shimmering reflective surface to it - one that greatly reflected the pavement down below, the sky up above, and the reflections of the stunned fighters all around. It was not dissimilar to Hedlok, but it seemed smoother and made of less separate pieces, and its triangular mouth lacked teeth and was instead covered by a jagged mess of four white fangs, two long ones jutting out from above with two smaller ones coming from below between them.

A long ARM of thick white silk shot out from the left side of its shell, twisting and turning for a length that was easily  _ twice _ that of a natural ARM. Another identical ARM shot out from the other side. And then another. And then two from the other side. And another one from the right.

The six ARMS pushed the floor below and rose its shell upward, taking Mimi’s body with it, which dangled lifelessly below. The eight circular black gaps on its casing slowly began to light up one-by-one with eerie red spirals, before Mimicutie’s ARMS slowly outstretched and took up a fighting stance.

The fighters looked on in horror. “C-Coyle...” Min Min muttered. “What the  _ hell _ is that?!”  
  
Dr. Coyle looked up at it in dread, all the colour gone from her face. “ _ Arachnilok _ .”


	14. The Weapon

“Good lord, Coyle...!” Master Mummy stared up at the mechanical abomination hanging above them all. “You  _ created _ this thing??”

Arachnilok raised itself higher, using two of its ARMS for support, while the other four - and Mimi’s own - each raised up into the air, as if it was preparing for a fight. The claw-like ends of each silk ARM began to spin one-by-one.

_ Okay, don’t panic... _ Ribbon Girl worried to herself, beginning to sweat.  _ Mimi’s got those mirror-shield gloves - a white one and the broken one, it seems. So as long as we don’t start throwing punches without thinking we- _

The upper left ARM of Arachnilok spun into Skully.

_...What? _ Ribbon Girl trembled.  _ O-Okay, so Mimi has the mirrors, a-and then the Hedlok-thing has Skullys on one-side and- _

The middle left ARM of Arachnilok spun into a Thunderbird.

Ribbon Girl felt her heart sink. She continued to watch, dumbfounded, just as all her co-fighters did, as Arachnilok continued to equip entirely different gloves on each of its ARMS. A Boomerang, an Ice Dragon, a Retorcher, a Biffler... Its arsenal was  _ diverse. _

And finally, as if finishing in its startup, Arachnilok let out a chilling robotic laugh.

“COME AT ME, BRO!” Kid Cobra squealed, sending a Slamamander at it. Mimicutie’s left ARM quickly rose up and ensured his attack would collide with her mirror. It sent back at lightning speed, harshly smacking Kid Cobra to the floor.

“Enough.” Coyle muttered, walking forward slowly. Arachnilok seemed to watch her intently. “I am your creator!” She spoke, commandingly. “You were  _ my _ design and you follow  _ my  _ order!” She broadened her shoulders, looking as imposing as she could be. “And I  _ order _ you to release the girl and deactivate!”

Arachnilok stared at her with its eight piercing-red eyes. After a brief pause, its fangs quickly shunted out of the way of its mouth - the outer ones striking further to the sides, and the inner ones turning downwards. It’s jaw lowered quickly and a splittering of cinders began to build up in its mouth.

“SCATTER!” Coyle shouted quickly, before grabbing Ribbon Girl by the back of her collar and jumping the two of them behind a nearby concessions stand. The other fighters each divided for similar cover.

A thick and volatile fireball launched from it’s gaping maw and destroyed the pavement where Coyle had been standing. Arachnilok turned around and began to launch more fireballs - again and again, in rapid succession - at the Spring Launcher and nearby Ribbon Twister, causing massive structural damage to both.

Coyle watched from behind the concessions stand. “This is bad... This is  _ really _ bad.”

“What the  _ hell _ is that thing?!” Ribbon Girl grunted through her teeth, as quietly as she could.

“Hm?” Coyle looked at her from over her shoulder. “Shoot, I thought I grabbed Min Min...” She turned back to watch the carnage again. “It was an experimental Hedlok evolution. I thought it was a little...  _ Overpowered, _ so I shut it away where it wouldn’t be used.”

“ _ Why didn’t you just destroy it?! _ ” Ribbon Girl angrily questioned.

Coyle rolled her eyes - now was no time to focus on the  _ past. _

Ribbon Girl sat on the pavement, pressing her back to the concessions stand. She inhaled deeply, her hands over her face, trying to calm herself. “Okay,  _ so, _ what do we do to stop it?”

Arachnilok was moving on through the park now, continuing its destruction over to the Twintelle Teacups and Brass Braker - a large pendulum ride shaped with a championship belt theme. Coyle turned again to Ribbon Girl. “I have an idea, but we need to find your girlfriend.”

Doing her best to stay calm, Ribbon Girl nodded and, with some hesitation, carefully peered over the stand. “I think she jumped behind the hedge there...”  
  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Min Min and Kid Cobra watched through the leaves of the bush they hid behind. “Aw hell, man...” Kid Cobra sighed. “She’s really wreckin’ up the place!”

“No kidding...” Min Min mumbled. “She was bad enough as some copycat, but now she’s gone all Super Paper Mario on us.  _ Very _ Super Paper Mario, actually - that’s kinda weird, right?”

“Beats me dawg, I don’t play games where ya gotta read a lot.”

“Figures.” She sighed. “Is she even in control of that thing, though? Coyle was shouting at it like  _ it _ was in control.”

“Probably somewhere in between, dawg. Why else would it smash up the park?”

“Makes sense.” She sighed and sat to the ground. “I dunno if we can stop her, man. I’m already worn out.”

“Whaaaat?!” He turned to face her again, now. “We’ve just started, dawg!”

“Maybe  _ you _ have!” She laughed. “I just held a rollercoaster together so the cart didn’t fly off into the sky. That’s enough of a work out on its own.” Min Min looked to her wrist again - it hurt like all hell, but it was hard to determine much physical damage on sheer ramen or dragon scale. But putting  _ that _ much stress on an ARM, dragon or otherwise? That was  _ never _ a good idea.

“Take a sec to chill out then, sis.” Kid Cobra peered through the bushes again. “The rest of us can take this one. I just hope she don’t target the King before we do - I still wanna get a ride on that, man.”

“So how exactly do you think we stop her...?” Min Min sighed, worried. “We had enough problem with  _ Hedlok  _ \- and this thing has like two more ARMS and shoots fireballs  _ wayyy _ faster.”

“And its ARMS are all diff gloves, too.” Kid Cobra mumbled. “Shits lookin’ dire, yo.” He grimaced at the sight of a fireball shooting upward and collapsing The Scientific Error from its position high above, where it then fall straight down atop Master Mummy’s Haunted Mansion. “ _ Oof. _ ”

“It’s gotta have a weakspot...” Min Min nodded. “Big monster things always do, right?”

“OH!” Kid Cobra jumped. “The  _ body! _ ”

“...You mean Mimi?”

“Yeah, dawg! We just gotta rough her up there and the whole thing prob’ dies. Why else would it go an’ glomp her like that? It  _ needs _ her!”

“I dunno...” Min Min chewed her lip nervously. “We’d probably have to hurt Mimi a  _ lot _ for that.”

“Yeah! We kill her, it dies too. Easy!”

Min Min glared at him from the corner of her eye. “We aren’t  _ killing _ Mimi!” In honesty, if it  _ were _ the only option, she’d take it. But Ribbon Girl certainly wouldn’t agree to that - not in a million years.

Kid Cobra whined. “Why not? She’s been tryin’ to kill everyone here!”

Min Min sighed. “Do you see her out there, at all...?”

“No... She musta gone off somewhere else or- AH!!” Kid Cobra jumped up suddenly with a gasp.

“Will you shut up already?!” Coyle insisted, as she and Ribbon Girl had just slipped behind the bush with them, startling him.

“Hey hun!” Min Min smiled. 

“Hey...” Ribbon Girl sighed, with a relieved smile on her face. She knew Min Min would be alright split up from them for, like, two minutes - but it was still a relief to see her okay.

“Yo, doc!” Kid Cobra chimed. “If we kill babygirl, will the head fall off?”

“ _ What?! _ ” Ribbon Girl gasped. “We are  _ not _ killing Mimicutie, that’s out of the question!”

“Though, for the record? It  _ would  _ work, yes.” Coyle shrugged.

Ribbon Girl glared at her. “We are  _ not _ killing her. Seriously, guys?”

“I don’t think we’ll need to resort to that.” Coyle smiled softly. “Arachnilok never went past a particular prototype stage, so it still has some weaknesses that were never ironed out. Mimi seems to have  _ some _ technical knowledge - enough to build an electromagnet, find which servers she needed, etc. etc., but I doubt she’d know enough to make the necessary alterations.”

“Okay, great!” Ribbon Girl smiled, relieved. The very last thing she wanted to do was kill Mimicutie - she was  _ so _ close to getting through to her, she knew it. And she would never want something like that on her conscious, anyway. “So how do we stop her?”

Coyle turned to Min Min, with a smile. “How’s that Dragon ARM doing?”

Min Min blinked at her. “...Badly? Very badly, actually. I just held a rollercoaster together with it, I don’t think I can bring back the scales for a  _ while! _ ”

“Well you’re going to have to.” Coyle sighed. “Arachnilok’s ARMS are made of woven  _ silk. _ It’s stronger than it looks, believe me, but it  _ can _ be cut through. All we’d need is a sufficiently strong enough Dragon laser - if Min Min charges her dragon ARM as high as she can, that might be enough.”

Min Min stared blankly at her. “I can’t even bring my dragon ARM  _ back _ right now, and you want me to charge it to the max for each of those  _ six _ ARMS?!”

“Yes.” Coyle nodded, determined. “But first we have to take care of its shield. The ARM weakness wasn’t something I fixed, but it  _ was _ something I took measures to protect. The head runs a small invisible shield around each of the ARMS, so we’ll need to deactivate the shield for the laser to cut through them.”

“And how do we do that...?” Ribbon Girl asked. Min Min gave her a sour look for even considering this plan when her dragon ARM was very clearly out of commission for the time being.

“The electrical current from any charged electric ARM will do the job, as well as make all her ARMS limp.  _ And _ it should deactivate the fireball emitter, so we won’t have to worry about being blown to cinders while we chop her ARMS off. I think it’s best we loop our ARMS over her and keep the charge as consistent as we can. That’ll give Min Min some time to get her dragon going.”

“Hnnnn... I  _ really _ don’t like this plan...” Min Min groaned. “This isn’t gonna do  _ permanent _ damage to me, right?”

“I’ll get you all the best ARMS medical treatment I can once this is all over. We  _ need _ you for this.” Coyle looked at her with something of a  _ trust _ in her eyes, like she actually felt she could count on Min Min for this.

Min Min sighed. “I’ll  _ try... _ ”

Coyle extended a hand to to Min Min. “Mummy is used to the Megaton, so he can use your Megawatt for now.”

Min Min nodded, before pressing her hand with the fingers of her other and gently turning it. A small disc appeared in her hand bearing the image of a Megawatt, which she then handed to Coyle.

Coyle turned to Kid Cobra. “You don’t have any electrical ARMS and we don’t have any other spares - so it looks like you’ll be playing  _ bait. _ ”

“Awww whaaaaat!” He groaned. “Mannn,  _ fine, _ but I better not get cooked out there!”

“Go find Mummy and Springtron while the rest of us get close to her. Tell them the plan and give Mummy the Megaton.” Coyle passed the disc to Kid Cobra. “The faster you move, the more of your precious rides get saved.”

“I’m on it!” Kid Cobra nodded, quickly slithering off in search of Master Mummy and Springtron.  
  
\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
The Ninja Swing, Min Min’s Dragon Dare, Mechanica’s Choo Choo, Buster Lagoon, and Twintelle’s Teacups all lay in ruin as Mimicutie, beneath the mask of Arachnilok, continued on her rampage. Most of Lola’s Sweet Street was gone now. The tower to Helix’s Stretch Drop was in flames. All around there was little but rubble and smoke.

Ribbon Girl, Min Min, and Dr. Coyle were much closer to her now, carefully watching from behind Springtron’s Bumper Blitz.

“How’s the ARM, Min Min?” Coyle asked quietly.

“Not  _ great _ still, but...” She sighed. “I  _ think _ I can get it to work.”

“Atta girl!” Coyle smiled sweetly at her - a rare occasion, to be sure.

Master Mummy, Springtron, and Kid Cobra each quietly joined them being the bumper carts. “You sure this plan will work...?” Mummy muttered, unsure.

“It’s the best chance we have.” Coyle sighed. “Shy of killing her.”

“Which we  _ aren’t _ going to do.” Ribbon Girl glared again.

Coyle nudged Kid Cobra. “You’re up.”

“Right!” He nodded, punching his ARMS together in preparation. “Wish me l-”

“W-Wait, wait...” Ribbon Girl paused. She looked to the floor solemnly. “...I want to try talking to her first.”

Coyle glared at her. “I  _ tried _ to talk Arachnilok off, it didn’t w-”

“No, I want to talk to  _ her! _ ” Ribbon Girl pleaded. She looked over toward the monster making its rampage. “I can get through to her, I  _ know _ it! If she could  _ choose _ to unhinge it... I mean, it’s gotta be worth a shot, right?!”

“... _ Fine. _ ” Coyle sighed. “Cobra - you jump in the  _ second _ that thing turns on her again. Got it?”

With a nod from Kid Cobra, and a small kiss to Min Min’s forehead, Ribbon Girl nervously made her approach.

Arachnilok turned back and forth between its two next options - progress over to Misango’s Nature Safari, which almost certainly still had venerable wildlife in it? Or take down King Cobra, for massive  _ destruction? _

“H-Hey!” Ribbon Girl shouted.

Arachnilok turned on a dime, looking down at her, as Mimicutie’s legs dangled from beneath.

Ribbon Girl gulped. “M-Mimi,  _ please, _ isn’t this enough...? You’ve won already! Y-You can  _ stop _ now!”

Arachnilok continued to stare. Mimicutie wasn’t saying anything from within, but she also wasn’t attacking...

“I-I’m sorry, Mimi! I’m sorry for everything that the League put you and your family through! It wasn’t fair to you a-and I’m not going to excuse the League for that!” She let out a small, nervous sigh. “I just really need you to  _ stop _ now. If you do... Maybe we can still work something out for you. Y-You’re young, and...” She chewed her lip. “...I just really don’t like the thought of what they’ll think of you for all this. They won’t understand what you’ve been through.”

Arachnilok’s head moved forward somewhat, and an echo-y and distorted voice came from within. “N o   o n e w o u l d u n d e r s t a n d.”

“B-But they might!” Ribbon Girl insisted, hoping she was getting through to her. “I-If you stop now,  _ maybe _ I can get them to listen! I’m the champion of the League - that’s gotta mean  _ something  _ to them, right?!”

The eight red eyes shined down on her like spotlights. “W h y   w o u l d y o u h e l p m e?”

Ribbon Girl looked up at her with something of a sorrow in her eyes. “Because I feel sorry for you. A-And I know you’re only doing all this because we hurt you.”

Arachnilok remained unmoving once again. She stayed like this for quite a long time, even. But ultimately it seemed Mimicutie had already made up her mind. “...T o o   l a t e n o w.”

Its fangs shot aside once again and its jaw unhinged. Ribbon Girl jumped back quickly, hoping to avoid the incoming blast, but it turned out no fireball came her way - a Slamamander sent Arachnilok flying back, landing it to the brick path beneath.

“Ya tried, sis!” Kid Coyle commented, landing beside her. “But we gotta stick to the plan now!”

Ribbon Girl sighed sadly. “R-Right...” She raised her ARMS reluctantly, ready for a fight.

The others each came out of hiding and joined up with them just as Arachnilok was getting back to its feet (well, ARMS). It let out another large roar before starting to swing its ARMS at them.

Skully to Coyle, barely dodged.  
Boomerang to Mummy, blocked.  
Ice Dragon to Cobra, dodged but then hit by a follow-up Biffler.  
Retorcher to Ribbon Girl, blocked.  
Skully, again, to Coyle. Hit.  
Thunderbird to Springtron, blocked.  
Ice Dragon to Mummy. Hit.  
Boomerang to Cobra, dodged.  
Skully to Ribbon Girl, dodged but hit by a follow-up Retorcher.  
Biffler to Springtron. Hit.

The fight raged on for a while and Min Min hung back as best she could, doing her best to avoid incoming shots and stay out of the heat of things while she waited for her opportunity.

It was Coyle who set up the first of those opportunities, quickly slipping behind Arachnilok unseen and spinning her ARM around its shell. A burst of blue electricity soared through Arachnilok - and Mimicutie, within - from Coyle’s Parabola. “ _ NOW! _ ” She shouted to the others.

Ribbon Girl hurriedly slipped her own ARM around Arachnilok too, before Mimicutie could realize what coyle was doing. She charged her Sparky, and the voltage coupled with Coyle’s seemed enough - all eight ARMS fell to the floor, limp.

“C’MON, MIN MIN!” Coyle shouted, doing her best to keep her voltage up.

Min Min jumped forward, struck her left hand forward - a Dragon at its tip, ready and waiting - and began to imbue it with pressure. She tensed her muscles as hard as she could, but all she felt was pain.

Master Mummy swung his ARM around Arachnilok too, with the borrowed Megawatt at its tip. “Whenever you can, Min!” He nodded to her, assisting with the charge.

Min Min shut her eyes tightly, trying desperately to build up the dragon within.  _ Come onnnn... Come onnnnnnn.... _ Tiny green speckles began to glitter around the ramen.  _ A-Almosttttt... Thereeeeee... _

Arachnilok looked back and forth, unable to move. Mimicutie’s legs from beneath began to kick side-to-side, as her ARMS hung lifelessly by her sides.

With a heavy grunt, Min Min’s ARM bulked up into dragonhood. She let out a deep exhale, and quickly began to charge up energy within her glove. The cartoonish mouth of the Dragon began to splitter with cinders, getting hotter and hotter, until-

Min Min let loose, and a heavy stream of fire energy shot from out of her glove. It struck through the air right above Arachnilok’s upper-right ARM. Min Min, struggling to keep it going, did her best to angle her ARM down more.

_ SLICE. _ Arachnilok’s silk ARM - the one tipped with an Ice Dragon - fell to the floor.

Coyle grinned, and each of the others seemed relieved that this was working. Min Min focused as hard as she could muster, and kept the stream going. She angled further down again, slowly, until-

_ SLICE. _ Middle-right. The Retorcher was now no longer connected to Arachnilok’s shell. Two down, four to go.

Min Min fell forward, panting heavily from the immense pain in her ARM. The stream had died and the scaling dragonskin had returned to starchy ramen.

It was clear Min Min would need some time to recharge again, and keeping their electrical assault on Mimicutie up wasn’t going to be possible for a greatly long time. The three keeping her down quickly unravelled from her and jumped back.

Ribbon Girl skid over to Min Min and knelt down for her. “Are you okay??”

Min Min’s chest heaved up and down as she gasped for air. “I-I’m fine, just... Just need to... Take a minute...”

“You’re doing great, Min.” Coyle smiled proudly. “You got two of ‘em, there!”

Arachnilok roared as its ARMS - Mimicutie’s included - awoke once again. It fired of hard with all ARMS in quick succession.

Biffler to Coyle. Hit, blinded.  
Thunderbird to Ribbon Girl, dodged.  
Boomerang curved through all of them, all dodged.  
Skully to Master Mummy. Hit, poisoned.  
A spinning Broken Mirror to Ribbon Girl. Hit.  
Boomerang to Springtron, blocked.  
Kid Cobra’s Slamamander, sent returning from the White Mirror. Hit, blown back.  
Master Mummy’s Phoenix, sent returning from the Broken Mirror as Poison, blocked.  
A fireball, somehow miraculously dodged by everyone.

After some time, it looked like it was finally a good opportunity for round two. Ribbon Girl shot forward this time, looping her ARM around Arachnilok’s shell. Master Mummy followed up almost immediately, getting the voltage high enough before Mimicutie could react.

Coyle sung her Parabola forth in equal cooperation. “ _ C’mon, Min Min! _ ” She urged.

Min Min took a quick, deep inhale. She pointed her Dragon forward and sought that inner dragonhood once more. The aching was  _ bad _ now, and attempting to charge it at all lead to a searing pain. But Min Min fought through it - she had a better idea, after last time, of exactly where to look for it. And before long, the deep green scales were back and the Dragon’s mouth was foaming once more.

_ SLI- _ ...Hm. Min Min couldn’t hold it for long enough there - it had only cut about three quarters of the way through the upper-left ARM.

The three wrapped around Mimicutie looked to the semi-connected ARM with worry, but kept the charge going for a moment. Min Min tried desperately, but it was far too early to bring it back once again.

Kid Cobra dashed to the ARM. He grabbed it by the glove-end, careful not to strike himself with her Skully, and gave it a heavy yank back. The first pull split another handful of silk strands at the cut. With one more great pull, Kid Cobra fell back on his ass as the ARM split off entirely.

“YES!” Coyle gleed, as she and the others jumped off one more. “ _ HALFWAY THERE! _ ”

Arachnilok dashed forward angrily, its ARMS swinging with an intense fury.

Thunderbird through to all of them. Dodged by Springtron, but a hit to each of the others.  
Fireball to all, all-round miss.  
Biffler to Master Mummy. Hit, blinded.  
Boomerang curved through all of them. Hits all round, everyone is blown back.  
Fireball to Min Min, blocked by Springtron diving-in just in time.  
Fireball to Master Mummy. Hit, sent faaaar back in great pain.  
Fireball to Coyle, blocked.  
Fireball to Kid Cobra, barely dodged. Collided with Springtron’s Bumper Blitz.  
Biffler to Ribbon Girl. Hit, blinded.  
Boomerang to Ribbon Girl. Hit, blown back.  
Thunderbird to Springtron. Hit, lost ARMS.  
Boomerang to Coyle, dodged a-  _ huh? _

Arachnilok’s Boomerang ARM collided  _ hard _ with the crumbling remains of Springtron’s Bumper Blitz. It must have struck some of the exposed and damaged circuitry from within, however, as an electrical current was now soaring through its ARM and up to the eight eyed shell. Each of its ARMS had gone limp again, but the Boomerang was  _ still _ stuck in the machinery, keeping that electrical current going.

The fighters watched in awe as Mimicutie was seemingly trapped. “Okay, we’ve got a moment to _ think _ here.” Coyle mumbled.

“No thinking.” Min Min grunted, getting to her feet from her protective kneel. “I’m ending this.”

“Good luck.” Coyle nodded. Ribbon Girl took a step back, concerned but hopeful.

Min Min pointed her left ARM forward, despite the difficulty in raising it at all. She blocked the pain out of her head entirely, chating  _ Don’t think! Don’t think! Don’t think! _ to herself repeatedly in her mind to keep her from paying any attention to the pain she was in.

With three heavy breaths preceding it, Min Min screamed as she forced her ARM into dragonhood. Tears streamed down her face as she quickly built up her blast, her ARM shaking back and forth unstable.

The beam shot out into a hefty stream of golden light, blasting toward the spot where Arachnilok’s upper-left ARM had been. She forced herself to push downward, despite  _ all _ voices in her head begging her to stop immediately.

_ SLICE. _ There goes the middle-left, the Thunderbird.

_ Just... A little... More...  _ She was feeling beyond light headed now.

_ SLICE.  _ There goes the lower-left, too. With the Boomerang gone, all that was left was the lower-right, with the Biffler.

The lower-left ARM, mind you, was the one that had been channeling the electrical energy from the bumper carts ride. Without it, Arachnilok was once again free, even with only three ARMS now.

Kid Cobra, Master Mummy, Springtron, and Dr. Coyle all jumped forward to continue the assault.

A hot breath escaped Min Min’s mouth as she fell forward, landing flat on the ground, out cold for a moment.

“M-MIN MIN!” Ribbon Girl gasped, dashing over to her. She picked up her girlfriend carefully.

Min Min squinted her eyes open. “H-How many... Did I get...?”

Ribbon Girl looked back to the battle before them. “The Hedlok-thing only has one more, now.”

Min Min, her eyes we and her breathing slow and deep, shut her eyes with a defeated look on her face. She pressed her right ARM to her left. “I can’t get the last.” Her left ARM had, of course, returned to ramen once again. But it was also limp and dead, like it was receiving an electrical current - just, of course, without the electrical current.

Ribbon Girl nodded. “Y-You over exerted yourself...” Her lip quivered. “You need to rest, I’ll get you to the sidelines!” She did her best to prop Min Min up and help her to a more secluded place, away from Mimicutie’s direct carnage.

Coyle looked over her shoulder at the two hobbling away. “Shit. Min Min’s outta the fight.”

“She did admirably.” Master Mummy nodded.

“Agreed. I’ll check on her when we’re done here.” Coyle dodged under the incoming Broken Mirror. The fight was  _ drastically _ easier to manage for them now that Mimicutie was only down to three ARMS.

“So how do we take out the last ARM??” Kid Cobra grunted, slipping past another fireball.

Springtron, who had briefly dashed off over to the ruins of the Bumper Blitz, skid back over to the others with a giant piece of rubble in his ARMS.

“Ohhh,  _ that’ll do it! _ ” Coyle grinned. The piece he held was a hefty chunk of rock with a  _ sharp _ piece of jagged metal jutting out from it, almost like a massive blade. “You take the lead, Cobra!”

Kid Cobra slipped over to Springtron and picked up the rubble. It was heavy, and his ARMS were admittedly a little sore from his stream stunt still - but he had made it this far, hadn’t he? No giving in now!

“Ready when you are, Coyle.” Master Mummy nodded.

Coyle sent forth her Parabola and curved it around Arachnilok’s shell. Master Mummy did the same in turn, and the three ARMS Mimicutie had left fell to the floor. Ribbon Girl dashed forward suddenly, rejoining the battle, and joint her Sparky with theirs.

Kid Cobra jumped high into the air and came down with the blade.

_ SL- _ ...Oh come on!! That  _ barely _ made it through!

The rubble was firmly lodged in the ARM, but still needed a bit of give. Kid Cobra’s extra pushing just wasn’t doing enough.

Coyle looked to Master Mummy, and he returned with a knowing nod. She quickly pulled back her ARM and prepared herself. Master Mummy pulled back too, leaving only Ribbon Girl to manage the shock - something she had to strain quite a bit to do.

With something of a battle cry, Coyle threw her hands forward and picked up Master Mummy. She spun him around in the air, extending him high up, and then  _ slammed _ him down onto the stone part of the rubble. The blade fell through the ARM like butter.

_ SLICE. _ And that was it - Arachnilok was now little more than a fancy looking mask.

Cinders began to well up in Arachnilok’s mouth.

_ Ah. _ Okay, maybe little more than a fancy mask that  _ could still shoot fireballs. _

The five of them narrowly avoided the three concurrent fireballs sent their way. Mimicutie was on her own two feet now, and her shining ARMS were up and ready for a fight.

“Don’t you  _ ever _ know when to quit?!” Coyle spat.

“‘Least this is more of a fair fight!” Kid Cobra smirked beneath his helmet.

“Okay, so, how do we get it  _ off _ of her?” Ribbon Girl asked. “It’s lost its ARMS but she’s still  _ in _ there...”

Coyle cracked her neck to one side. “OLH units are always designed with a maximum damage intake value. Forces it off your head before the risk of the shell falling apart and crushing your skull.”

“And how much do we have to damage it, exactly?” Master Mummy questioned.

“About six times as much as the Hedlok Ribbon Girl fought back at her championship would require. This things  _ tough. _ ”

“Aw mannn,  _ really?! _ ” Kid Cobra sighed. “We’re gonna be at this forever!”

“Quite likely.” Coyle nodded. “If you can think of anything flashy to  _ really _ strike it, you’ve got the floor. But it’s this or attacking her body.”

“ _ Then we’ll fight the shell. _ ” Ribbon Girl insisted firmly. “No one has to die today.”

The fight broke out once again, though much more traditionally than what had just entailed.

Kid Cobra’s Slamanader to Mimicutie. Hit.  
Dr. Coyle’s Brrchuk to Mimicutie. Hit.  
Master Mummy’s borrowed Megawatt. Miss.  
Springtron’s Toaster. Reflected by White Mirror, struck back at him briefly setting him alight.  
Dr Coyle’s Parabola. Miss.  
Master Mummy’s Phoenix. Hit.  
Ribbon Girl’s Popper. Hit.  
Kid Cobra’s Hydra. Miss.  
Springtron’s Tribolt. Hit.

It wasn’t long before Mimicutie, beginning to get more and more distressed, attempted for the first time in a while to use her mimicry. She began to fog up - but then a strike from Springtron’s Toaster sent her flying back in a twitchy, uncomfortable mess.

Mimicutie carefully got back to her legs, Arachnilok still firmly on her shoulders, with her body still set at herself. There was simply no opportunity for her to change here. It was one against five - she’d never get an opportunity to.

Before too long, Mimicutie began to focus almost entirely on just using her fireballs, spitting them out as frequently as possible. One of them struck Master Mummy head-on, sending him flying far, far back, all the way over to the King Cobra ride.

“Awwww shit, dawg!” Kid Cobra gasped. “She’ll knock all of us out ‘fore we get that damn thing off!”

Coyle grunted to herself. Kid Cobra was right - Mimicutie had time on her side. Time  _ and fireballs. _

Fireball to Ribbon Girl, blocked.  
Fireball to Coyle, dodged.  
Fireball to Springtron. Hit, sent back toward the rubble behind.  
Fireball to Kid Cobra. Narrowly dodged.  
Fireball to Coyle. Blocked.

After a moment, Coyle heard her name yelled from the distance. She turned to its source - Master Mummy in the distance, who seemed to have his borrowed Megawatt pressed to the King Cobra’s electrical-  _ Ahhh! _

Coyle grinned widely. She turned to Ribbon Girl. “ _ Stun her! _ ”

Ribbon Girl sent a charged Sparky to Mimicutie, knocking her ARMS limp once again. Coyle then followed up quickly with a grab. She twirled Mimicutie in the air in a large circle, before throwing her off far into the distance.

Springtron leapt into the air and latched himself onto Mimicutie, looking down at her as they soared through the sky. He began to shimmer in electrical light, keeping her ARMS down for as long as possible.

The two landed squarely on the track of the King Cobra, with Mimicutie’s legs dangling off the side. She would have almost certainly fallen, if not for Springtron firmly keeping her up there. But why...?

_ OH. _

The King Cobra - the fastest ride in the park - suddenly collided with the two of them at break-neck speed. The hit struck Springtron first, blasting him into tiny pieces that scattered all across the park.

Mimicutie was sent flying once again, spinning through the air. Arachnilok looked  _ immensely _ banged up, and seemed to be spluttering slightly from difficulties staying functional. And then, finally, it met its end.

Mimicutie landed head-first to the solid concrete ground and bounced a couple times. The first strike shattered Arachnilok into pieces, forever broken. The second hit snapped her own mask in half, leaving her shining mirror ARMS to coil up by the time she hit the floor for a third time, at which point she rolled several times, some blood splattering across the pavement as she did.

“ _ Mimi! _ ” Ribbon Girl called out, concerned. She ran after her quickly.

Coyle grit her teeth. She wanted to go after Mimicutie - and she would, certainly - but she felt she needed to make a stop first. She turned on a dime and headed over to Min Min to do a quick check on her ARMS.

Ribbon Girl dashed toward the limp body on the floor. As she got closer, Mimicutie began to move, rolling over slightly and carefully propping herself up.

Mimicutie, her face badly bruised, took a weak look at Ribbon Girl and quickly got to her feet. She dashed, though somewhat limping, off toward the remains of Master Mummy’s Haunted Mansion, which now had what was left of The Scientific Error sticking out of it.

“W-Wait!” Ribbon Girl pleaded, running after her. She entered the dusty-aired building just in time to see Mimicutie carefully hop down through a large gap in the ground that The Scientific Error had created.

Ribbon Girl followed her, dropping down into the gap to the room beneath. It seemed to be an old storage room.

And it was filled with mirrors.


	15. The Shattered Mirror

The old storage room smelled musty and had a lingering flicker of dust in the air - likely from the carnage above, which had also left bits of rubble all across the floor. There were several tall panels dotted around, each with a thin pale blanket draped over them. Mirrors, almost certainly. Set aside in storage.

Directly ahead of Ribbon Girl, stood before one of the cloaked mirrors, was the young woman she had been chasing this whole time. Mimicutie.

She had her back to Ribbon Girl, and just seemed to be standing there. She had lost her mask now, so the chances of her starting another fight were slim. She was all out of tricks now.

“M-Mimi...” Ribbon Girl started.

Mimicutie looked to the floor below her. After a small pause she finally spoke up, in a quiet and somber tone. “I loved our park. I really did.” The cold air matched the cool blue tone of the room, illuminated only by the light coming through the cracks above. “Everything my father and I did, we did it for our park. For our guests. We just wanted to make the world a happier place.”

She straightened her neck.

“When I was young, I used to clean the mirrors in the Hall of the Heroes. I’d go in with a little bucket and sponge and wipe them all down. Cleaning the bigger rides was always too dangerous for me, so...” She sighed. “S-So the mirrors was _my_ job.” Her voice began to wobble somewhat. “My dad used to call me his ‘Mirror Maid’. I always loved that name.”

Mimicutie pressed her fingers to the shroud she was looking at. Her hand shook a bit, as she pulled the cloak off, revealing beneath it a shattered mirror with several pieces missing. Some rubble from above must have struck the cloak before they arrived.

She looked into her distorted reflection with disappointment. “...My dad never had ARMS. Said he never needed ‘em. But then one day I got mine, a-and...” She sniffled. “And they were mirrors! He was _so proud._ ” She ran one of her shining ARMS past her nose, wiping it. “He said I could be an ARMS fighter when I grew up. Maybe I’d make it big, he’d say. But I never cared about that.” She sobbed a little, quietly. “ _I j-just wanted to stay with our park!_ ”

Ribbon Girl’s eyes watered as she let Mimicutie talk. She wouldn’t even know what to say, given the opportunity, so she sayed silent.

Mimicutie sniffled again. “Wh-When things started going south a-and we heard they were gonna tear our place down for a _League_ park, I-I was _so_ upset... B-But he reassured me it wouldn’t happen. He said we’d stand up for ourselves and show them wh-why we deserved to stay!” Tiny drops of tears hit the floor below her. “We talked to Brass about it a-and he said he’d ‘ _talk to his people_ ’. A-And I thought, at the time, that th-there was _no_ way he actually would. Th-That he just _said_ that to make us go away.” She sniffled again, this time quite a loud one. “But my dad kept saying how we had to have _faith_ in people! He was sure Brass would stay true to his word.”

A long pause came. Ribbon Girl stood there, some tears down her face, waiting for Mimicutie to continue. She realized the implication before all too long. _Of course_ Brass didn’t stay true to his word. They wouldn’t be here if he had.

Mimicutie gave a small sniffle, beginning again with an emptiness to her voice. “My dad changed when the park shut down. He just kinda... Just kinda _stopped_. Went all quiet and distant. He wouldn’t eat enough, or watch TV... He’d just sit and stare at nothing in particular. I don’t think I ever really saw him smile again.” She sighed slightly. “And then, before long, that was that. And I didn’t have a dad anymore.” She wiped her nose again. “No siblings. And mama died when I was young, so... I was alone. Didn’t even have any friends. Never had.”

She quietly put her hand up to the shattered mirror before her, laying it flat on the distorted reflection it gave.

“This is all that remains of my park now. They didn’t know what to do with the mirrors - maybe they were superstitious about breaking them, I dunno - so they left them down here.” She ran her hand softly against the cracks in the mirror. “I used to give a big bright smile after cleaning each one, just to see how happy it made me to be helping.”

Mimicutie bared her teeth. Her fall from earlier hand knocked out four of them, and a further two were now little more than shattered spikes of chips and cracks. That’d be the source of that taste of blood in her mouth, she figured.

She shut her eyes, tears falling. “ _I j-just w-want to go back..._ ”

Ribbon Girl gulped. She quietly wiped her tears aside and did her best to be a friend, despite this being their only non-hostile interaction. “M-Mimi...” She cleared her throat. “ _Alison..._ ” She took a step forward gently. “I’m _so_ sorry. I-I can’t express how much it hurts me to hear all of this. It makes me _ashamed_ of the League, a-and of Brass...” She sighed. “I-If I had _known..._ ”

Mimicutie shrugged softly. “I guess it was before your time. This place was already being built when you took the championship. Funland was...” She sighed. “A-Already dust.”

“F-For what it’s worth...” Ribbon Girl stammered. “... _I_ liked Funland. I always thought the future-theme was really cool. Thought it’d be nice if our future ended up like that.” Memories came back to her head now. She really _did_ quite like that place. “Y-Y’know that ride with the pictures of scientists and the voice-over talking a-about technology? That one was always my favourite.”

A snort came from Mimicutie. “That ride _sucked._ ” She laughed sadly. “I always thought that was the weakest one, it was j-just a stupid field trip... It was so slow.”

Ribbon Girl smiled softly. “I liked the slow rides. A-And I found it fun to learn about all those people, and everything they’d done for us!”

Mimicutie shut her eyes. She really didn’t think Ribbon Girl was lying. “I always liked Starfly Journey. All those planets you’d pass by... And we left Pluto up there, too. I always thought that was cute.”

Ribbon Girl smiled, before she felt her eyes well up with tears again. “ _Please let me help you._ ”

She slowly turned her head over her shoulder to look at Ribbon Girl. The consequences of wearing Arachnilok were immediately pretty obvious - there were _large_ bleeding gashes all around the perimeter of her head, as if it had actually bit down on her when she put it on. That’d explain the scream she gave, certainly. But this was also the first time Ribbon Girl was looking at her without her mask on. Those big white eyes seemed so much more natural without the whitened eyelashes.

Ribbon Girl wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “There’s gotta be _some_ future for you. _Please._ ”

Mimicutie gave a soft, pitiful smile. “I’ve lost everything. There’s nothing left for me at all. Not anymore.”

“Then we can _make_ something!” Ribbon Girl insisted. “W-Why not... _Why not become an ARMS fighter?!_ ”

Her remarked earned and blank stare from Mimicutie. Not one of having taken insult to that, but one of... Confusion.

“I-I’m serious!” Ribbon Girl pleaded. “It’d be a new legacy for you and your family! Something you know your father would be proud of!” A tear rolled down her cheek. “And you could help make the League into something _commendable!_ ”

Mimicutie turned around fully now. She looked down, as if considering it. She _hated_ the ARMS League... But... That actually sounded rather-

Min Min and Coyle suddenly dropped down at either side of Ribbon Girl, the former cradling her left ARM.

“End of the line, Alison.” Coyle glared angrily.

“...Yeah.” Mimicutie stared to the floor.

“C-Coyle...” Ribbon Girl glared back at her, wanting to say something.

“So do you think that was all worth it, in the end?” Coyle continued to grunt at Mimicutie. “All this because of a fucking _theme park._ God knows what you would have pulled if it was something that had actually _mattered._ ”

“ _Coyle..._ ” Ribbon Girl felt her heart sink.

“Well? _Was_ it worth it? _Are_ you proud of yourself?” Coyle shouted.

Mimicutie didn’t reply.

“ANSWER ME!” She insisted once again.

A tear fell from Mimicutie’s eye as she continued to stare at the floor. “ _No._ ”

“Did you think _ANY_ of this through?” Coyle continued.

Mimicutie shook her head quickly, her eyes watering.

“You were gonna kill people, dude...” Min Min mumbled, disappointingly.

Mimicutie’s face scrunched up, as if she were trying to hold back tears. She nodded.

“Guys, please!” Ribbon Girl pleaded for them to be a little softer on her.

Coyle put up her hand toward Ribbon Girl. She was _not_ in the mood to be interrupted right now. “Your park will _forever_ be remembered for this. Your legacy - your _family’s_ legacy - will go down as one of pathetic excuse for ‘revenge’. And that’s _your_ fault.”

Her lip quivered heavily as she was finally forced to address the awful truth she had known all along. She tried desperately to fight it back, despite Coyle’s bitter beratement.

“So, Alison.” Coyle glared at her. “Tell me - do you think your _father_ would be proud of everything you’ve done today?”

“ _...NO._ ” Mimicutie’s face erupted into a harsh sob as she fell to her knees. She cried heavily with everything she had built up. She _knew_ deep down, right from the beginning, that this whole plan for vengeance was _wrong._ That it’d fix _nothing._ That her father - the one person she had in her life - would be _ashamed_ of her for it. She could see him so clearly in her head, tears in his eyes, asking what happened to his sweet Mirror Maid who only ever wanted the _best_ for the world. _God_ what a painful image that was.

“To think you’re anything but a _worthless_ waste of carbon would be an _insult_ to us all.” Coyle bitterly looked down at her. “It makes me sick to know I breathe the same _air_ as you.”

“ _Okay, enough!_ ” Ribbon Girl insisted, turning back to the two beside her. “Can you cut it with the guilt trip?! You’ve made your point. _She’s hurting enough already!_ ”

Coyle glared at her with the same lack of care.

“Hun...” Min Min solemnly looked at her. “You have to remember all she’s done today...”

“I-I know!” Ribbon Girl pleaded. “But what does any of this solve?? She didn’t just do this for nothing, she had her reasons. Even if you don’t _agree_ with what she did, can’t you understand what she must have felt to bring her to do all that...?”

“How she felt means nothing to me.” Coyle bluntly replied. “Her own stupid sorrow over losing her park just lead her to destroying someone else’s - and attempting to take _multiple_ innocent lives in the process.”

“H-Her dad-”

“ _Master Mummy had his son here today._ ” Coyle interrupted, reminding them all. “How do you think his son would have felt if his dad got killed? Got killed by _her,_ through _her_ actions? How do you think _any_ children here today would have felt for losing their parents in her little rampage? How would the parents feel for losing their children?” Coyle shook her head, looking at Mimicutie with nothing but hatred. “She’ll rot in a cell for the rest of her life _and I’ll make sure of that._ ”

Ribbon Girl looked back at Coyle with an emptiness in her expression. She turned to Min Min instead.

“...I’m sorry, hun.” Min Min looked back, an apologetic look on her face. “I’m with Coyle on this one.”

Ribbon Girl stared blankly between them. “Then I really don’t know what to say. Because I’m not giving up on her so quickly.” She turned back to Mimicutie. “I still see some good in her, a-and I’ll... I’ll...”

Mimicutie, her breath still and her eyes empty, looked back up at Ribbon Girl. “...Thank you.” She smiled softly, so grateful to have finally had someone try to understand her. She shut her eyes as her hand quietly picked up a sharp shard of broken glass from the floor beside her. “For trying.” With a single tear dropping once more from her eye, Mimicutie raised the shard to her throat.

“ _NO!_ ” Ribbon Girl gasped suddenly, as the two beside her recoiled back.


	16. Epilogue

Ribbon Girl and Min Min sat atop Min Min’s car, blankets draped around their shoulders, given to them by the paramedics on the scene. There was a multitude of emergency vehicles surrounding the outside of ARMS League World - so much so that the flashing lights atop them all were kinda dizzying.

Coyle approached the two shortly. “There.” She raised a small metal box between her fingers. “Springtron’s black box recorder. I’ll put him in a new body and he’ll be just as we knew him, memories and all.” She slipped the box into her pocket. “For better or for worse.”

“Bold of him to jump on her like that.” Min Min mumbled back. “Glad you guys managed without me at the end there.”

“Don’t sweat it.” Coyle shrugged. “You did great out there. Sorry about your ARM. No lasting damage done, at least.”

“So what now, then?” Min Min asked.

“Well, they’ll probably salvage some stuff from the park, but I don’t know how much there’ll be. She got everything ‘cept the petting zoo, in the end.” Coyle sighed. “I guess King Cobra’s doing alright, just needs a new cart.”

“I don’t care about the park.” Ribbon Girl bitterly muttered, staring to the pavement below.

Coyle shut her eyes, inhaling deeply. “ _ Ribbon... _  We really couldn’t have helped her.”

“You don’t know that.” She quickly insisted.

“Champion or not, you couldn’t have handwaved a  _ terrorist _ attack. You know that.”

Ribbon Girl sighed. “ _ She deserved better... _ ” She sniffled. “She just got dealt a bad hand...”

“ _ Look... _ ” Coyle scratched behind her neck. “I’ll admit that much. She got handed a bad situation and, had she received counselling or something, I think she could have definitely been saved before all of this. But by the time we got into that storage room?  _ It was too late. _ ”

Min Min put her right ARM around her girlfriend, holding her close. “She lost her chance at being saved when she started attacking the park.”

“Then I should have talked her out of it.” Ribbon Girl muttered.

“She lost her chance when she  _ tried to kill Brass. _ ” Coyle injected. “I’m sorry, Ribbon. I really am.” She chewed her lip. “...If you need someone to talk about it, the Lab is always here for you.”

“Mm.” Ribbon Girl nodded slightly, starting to accept, as difficult as it was, that the situation was unwinnable when she got there. Doesn’t mean she didn’t still have a ton of regrets, though.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
About two weeks later, Coyle had just won a team match over in Sky Arena and returned, with her teammate, to the locker rooms following the match. The two showered off and got changed in what was generally silence, until about when Coyle began putting her boots back on.

Her teammate sat down on the bench beside her. “ _ So... _ ” They began, reaching into their gym bag for a few final touch-ups. “The kid didn’t make it, in the end?”

“Hm?” Coyle raised an eyebrow.

“The mirror mimic.” They clarified.

“Ah.” Coyle sighed. “Yeah, it was a tricky situation. Really did a number on Ribbon Girl.” She began to tie her laces. “And on me, I guess. Kinda.” She mumbled.

“Mm.” Her teammate nodded. “Shame. She could have been so much more.”

“Yeah, well, it happens.” Coyle shrugged. “It was  _ her _ choices that lead her to that park to start swinging.”

“ _ Her _ choices?”

Coyle glared at them. “ _ Yes. _ She was dealt a bad hand, sure, but ultimately it was  _ her _ choice to seek revenge. You can’t pin the League on that.”

“Mm.” Her teammate sighed. “I’d still be wary of vilifying her  _ that _ strongly, however.”

“And why’s that?”

Her opponent gave a small laugh. “You don’t really see any of  _ yourself _ in her?”

“No.” Coyle glared. “I’m not planning to start a killing spree over something petty and unimportant.”

“And if the ARMS Lab was shut down?”

“...Well,  _ for one, _ that isn’t something petty and unimportant.” Coyle mumbled. “But even still, I don’t think I’d jump to something like  _ that. _ I do have  _ some _ sanity, y’know.”

“Mm, well, I wonder sometimes.” Her teammate shrugged. “I’m sure Mimi would have said the same thing before her park closed.”

Coyle sighed loudly. “For what reason are you saying all this?”

“Ah, well...” Her teammate smirked. “I’m just drawing a parallel. I can see a similarity in you both and I wouldn’t rule out that one day you may find yourself in similar shoes to hers. I hope not. And I hope you wouldn’t ever do something so drastic. But I think it’s worth considering before you find you have little good to say on her. I doubt  _ you’d _ appreciate being remembered in the same way.”

Coyle shut her eyes, taking a deep breath. “I suppose I see your point.” She could also see some similarities between herself and Mimicutie - especially with that mirror at the end, there. Not that her opponent would have recognised that one. She sighed, got to her feet and picked up her carrier bag.

“Coyle.”

“Hm?” She paused before leaving.

“That’s your cue to find something nice to say about her.”

She blinked. “After what she did, I have nothing to-”

“ _ Coyle. _ ” Her teammate sighed. “You know very well the logic behind it. You wouldn’t want to be remembered the same way, so...”

“ _ Fine. _ ” Coyle begrudgingly agreed. “Then, in that case, I guess...” She puffed her cheeks up as she thought. “...When we met face-to-face in that park?”

Her teammate looked at her from the reflection of the makeup mirror they held.

“...I thought she had good taste in lipstick.” Coyle shrugged. “Happy?”

As Coyle then finally left, Twintelle looked back to her mirror and saw a small, sad smile looking back at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so Broken Glass comes to an end. Easily my longest fic so far - someone stop me, please!
> 
> My main goal for this fic was to make something a bit more action-packed and serious than some of my previous works, while also giving each ARMS fighter a chapter-in-the-spotlight of sorts with each Reflection chapter. It took me a while to really nail down what I wanted to DO with Mimicutie, but I think in the end she was an interesting mix of cunning, calculating, anger, and desperation. What do you think? Let me know!
> 
> After having antagonists in this fic, DisARMed, and Who Killed Byte?, I think my next few fics will go in a different direction and not HAVE a focus antagonists. More character-driven then plot-driven, for a bit. That should mix stuff up.
> 
> See you next time!


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